Kiss the Cook
by 4thFromTheFurnace
Summary: When Ayumu finds out something that will put Hiyono in mortal danger, he whisks her off to the most unexpected place in the world. -AyuHiyo-
1. The Tickets

**Disclaimer: I do not own Spiral. Blah blah blah, you all know that already...Anywho... ::speaks in deep ominous voice reminiscent of the Tiger-head on Aladdin:: "PROCEED"**

The steak sizzled on the grill, occasionally spitting a few drops of grease in every direction. Ayumu dodged to the side to avoid a sling of grease aimed in his direction as he flipped the steak. He nearly let out a growl and a heavy sigh. He HAD to do something about that grease.

In about a half an hour, Madoka would come home, beat and grumpy as always, waiting for food to be presented to her. Something in the back of his mind wondered if she'd take a liking to the almost American-style steak he was cooking up this evening. The miniature grill nearly spanned the surface of the entire counter, so she better eat some of it because he had neither the time nor the room to make anything else at the moment.

But what was he saying? Was he actually worried about steak going uneaten? Especially when-

"NARUMI-SAN!"

Right on time. Speak of the devil. He swore that girl could smell his cooking from miles away. He actually had expected her fifteen seconds earlier...maybe her nose was starting to get rusty...or maybe she was finally gaining some weight for all the food she ate.

The girl in question scooted behind him and peeked over his shoulder at the mouthwatering dinner on the grill, using him as a shield for the spraying grease. Her malicious grin said it all.

"Narumi-san...Is there any reason why you made enough steak for three people?"

"Hn."

"You were expecting me, weren't you?"

"Hn."

She snapped her fingers, "Dangit...I'll have to find another way then to keep you offguard."

He turned his head to look at her, "Why? And why are you hanging over my shoulder like that?"

"'Cuz I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry. And I can't get the steak off the grill with you on my shoulder."

She automatically stepped away from him and waited for him to unload the steak onto plates. As he set the plates down on the table, she rubbed her hands together gleefully, a mischievous smirk on her face. She quickly sat down and picked up her fork and knife, and was about to dig in when he swiped the knife from her hand.

"You're dangerous with sharp objects, especially when you're around food." he informed rather curtly. She huffed and scowled at him, her arms crossed, as he took her plate to the counter and proceeded in cutting the meat himself. She sighed heavily when he reluctantly brought it back to her. Without much hesitation, she began to eat.

As she neared the last piece of juicy red meat, the door opened and Madoka Narumi stormed in, slamming the door behind her. Hiyono, looking a bit worried, inquired, "Are you alright, Madoka-oneesan?"

When the young woman didn't answer, Hiyono put her fork down and stared at her lap. Madoka slumped into the kitchen chair opposite Hiyono and threw her elbows on the table, burying her head in her arms. Hiyono bit her lip, almost afraid to speak. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, Ayumu began to walk over to his sister-in-law, who, without lifting her head, held her hand out to keep him from getting any closer.

Ayumu stopped in his tracks and stared at Madoka for a while, emotionless, before finally turning his glance to Hiyono and nodding his head towards the door to outside. Hiyono took the hint and rose from her chair, following Ayumu out to the hall deck like a loyal puppy afraid of being left behind. After she shut the door behind her, she joined Ayumu in leaning over the railing, staring out at the rest of the city. Ayumu divulged in a few moments of silence before speaking softly, still staring into space, "Do you want me to walk you home?"

Hiyono smiled softly and folded her hands together, her elbows on the railing, "There aren't many times I say 'no' to you, and I don't think this is gonna be one of them. I don't know about you but I would rather you walk me home than face your Madoka-oneesan when she's in this kind of mood."

A small smile tugged at Ayumu's lips, "I think she's PMSing; and for once I agree with you, even though you can be an annoying stupid girl."

Hiyono growled and puffed out her cheeks, punching him in the arm with her bear puppet, "You never let up, do you, Narumi-san?"

His chocolate eyes showed his smirk as he grabbed her hand, puppet and all, and tugged her away from the railing. With that, he let go...after he pulled the puppet off her slender fingers. He automatically gave it back to her to avoid her getting wound-up again.

She put it away quickly and followed him out of the apartment building and down to the street. Without a word he began walking in the direction of her house, or where he thought her house was. Hiyono laughed through her teeth as he kept walking. Finally, as she burst out in a fit of giggles, he stopped and waited for her to explain, not even bothering to look back at her. After breathing deeply to catch her breath, she managed to explain, still trying not to laugh, "Narumi-san...you're going completely the wrong way."

Hiyono watched as she could see his shoulders tense up. He turned around briskly and trudged in the other direction, his hands clenched in fists and a scowl on his face.

She walked behind him most of the way, choosing to walk closer as soon as he relaxed a bit. Suddenly she gazed up at the sky and stared at the moon, mumbling in awe, "It's so beautiful..."

Ayumu chose not to comment, but spun around to face her once they reached her house. She gave him a huge smile, "Thanks for the delicious dinner, Narumi-san."

Once again, he didn't answer. But a smile caught his face when she stepped through the door, but turned around once more before shutting it, "Nighty night, Narumi-san."

When the brown-haired detective arrived back at the apartment, he was greeted by his sister-in-law shoving a pamphlet in his face. He warily took it and held it away from him so he could see. As he read over it, he realized what his sister-in-law was trying to say with her pamphlet and bold antics.

"You're going to Texas?"

Madoka shook her head, "Nope. WE are going to Texas!" she announced dramatically. A million thoughts buzzed around Ayumu Narumi's head. The main one, however, was definitely:

"For how long?" his voice almost sounded as surprised as he really was.

Madoka shrugged, "Until I feel like leaving."

Ayumu was speechless. He strode past her and trudged in his room, his expression almost like a drone. He fell backwards onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. The first thought that came to his mind was Hiyono. Without him to keep an eye on her, would she be alright? If he was in Texas, who would be there to keep her in line? To keep her from eating too much at a time? To hover over her shoulder while she was on the computer digging up information about the Blade Children? To walk her home so she wouldn't run into creeps like Kanone Hilbert. Kanone...HE was in the United States...If Ayumu was there as well, would Kanone find some way to track him down?

There was no doubt in his mind the real reason Madoka wanted to go to Texas. She thought Kiyotaka was there. Ayumu had to be truthful in the fact that he had no interest in finding his brother. As soon as his brother was found, he'd probably wind up back in the shadows again. Hiyono...Ayumu definitely felt stupid for thinking it, but what if they DID find Kiyotaka? Would even Hiyono abandon him for his older brother?

Ayumu's mental distress eventually put him to sleep. Without warning, he fell into a slumber looking stiff as death.

An strangely obnoxious cell phone ring bolted Ayumu from his sleep. Not even bothering to fool with his unnaturally messy bed-head, he stared at the phone, wondering why in the world Rio would call him, and at SIX in the morning for heaven's sake. He gave a heavy sigh and answered, his sleepyness echoing etchy scratches in his voice, "Yeah?"

After a moment he heard the reply of the young seemingly innocent childish voice of Rio, "Ayumu, are you sick? Nevermind. I need to tell you something. We just found out that Kanone's coming back to Japan! He'll be at the airport this afternoon!"

Ayumu nearly choked on the spit at the back of his throat. When he didn't answer with words, Rio continued, her voice beginning to get a bit frantic, "But Ayumu, I think he's determined to make you suffer this time!"

All Ayumu said was, with his brows knitted together in a determined expression, "Not if I'm out of the country by then!"

With that, he hung up. Standing up stiffly from his bed, he began to pace back and forth, still wearing his clothing from the day before. After a while, he began to express his thoughts out loud.

"If Kanone wants me to suffer...what would he try to pull? He's too crafty for the capture-torture session. Wait...Knowing him, he'd get to me by hurting the people close to me...but he already proved that he can't handle Madoka...after the last time, she made sure she carried that gun of hers with her wherever she went...so who would he...oh no..."

With that, Ayumu rushed out of his bedroom in his socks as fast as he could while trying not to wake his sister-in-law. It didn't take long for him to spot what he was looking for on the kitchen table. Along with the pamphlet she showed him, Madoka left two plane tickets in the middle of the table. Ayumu grabbed his home phone off its hook and dialed a number, waiting impatiently for someone to pick up. Finally that golden voice answered the stupid phone, as Ayumu viewed it, "Hello?"

His voice came out at a hurried whisper, trying not to make noise to wake the 'sleeping beauty', "Listen, Hiyono, don't ask questions and don't get excited. Pack your bags for a couple weeks and meet me at the airport by noon."

It took a while for everything to register in Hiyono's mind, finally she replied frantically, "Um, O-okay, s-sure."

Ayumu continued, still in a whisper, "Good. I'll see you there."

He turned off the phone and stepped softly into his room and began to pack a suitcase quietly.

When Ayumu finally finished packing, he threw on a light jacket and mussed his hair with his hand before snatching the tickets from the table and briskly walking out the door, giving one last glance in the direction of Madoka's room. He sighed and closed the door behind him, beginning his journey to the airport and ultimately his journey to Texas. As long as Kanone was in Japan and Ayumu was in the States, there was no way he would be able to track Ayumu down in time. Even if he did, Ayumu would make sure that Hiyono was completely out of reach. Ayumu bet his life on it.

Preview: After Ayumu so brazenly stole Madoka's plane tickets, he and Hiyono are on their way to the States. Will Kanone track them down? Will Madoka get a hold of Ayumu before he changes his phone number? How mad will she be? And what does the story here have to do with the title?

****

Hahahaa, don't worry, all will be answered in time. As for the title, it's named for something that happens in Texas, so hang on and see what happens when Ayumu and Hiyono are faced with something outrageous in Texas. Not outrageous to the Texans, of course, but pretty outrageous to a couple of modern teenage 'city slickers' in the area. Although we all know that whatever it is, Hiyono would probably love it, or at least find it fascinating. Ah, what the heck, I'm talking too much. I'll just let all of you find out for yourselves.(And I am very much a country girl myself so don't take anything I write about Texas as insulting...in fact...I really wanna go to Texas...It's Awesome!)


	2. The Airplane

Hiyono yawned as she stood by her luggage in the airport lobby. Somehow she had managed to pack her things and get there early. She smoothed out her knee-length skirt and adjusted the sleeves on her turtleneck sweater. She was beginning to get a little bored.

As if on cue, her mysterious friend walked in, one manageable suitcase in his hand. When he spotted her and walked over, he gave her a look that she was all too familiar with, "What is all this?"

Hiyono cleared her throat, almost offended, "My luggage. What's it look like?"

Ayumu retorted, "I said pack for a few weeks, not a year!"

Hiyono puffed, "Well, excuse me. You said to pack and be here by noon! I'm packed and I was here BEFORE noon!"

With a shameful shake of his head, he picked up her duffle bag and a wheeled suitcase with her name on it, leaving her to carry her other bags of odds and ends.

As they put their suitcases and other luggage on the conveyor belt, Hiyono inquired, "Narumi-san, you never DID tell me where we're going."

The short reply came a short time later, "You'll see."

She squirmed, discontent, "Narumi-san never tells me anything!"

Ayumu exhaled frustratedly, "Well, now I'm telling you to stop yapping and get on the plane."

She huffed and followed her companion to the ramp, hugging her carry-on bag to her chest, clearly in thought. Ayumu took a glance back at her every now and then, wondering if Hiyono would catch on to the signs or not. Finally, as he approached the ramp, he heard her exclamation, "TEXAS, Narumi-san?!!! Why Texas?! It's so far away!!"

"Hn." was all the answer she received as they finally boarded the plane.

Hiyono awed at the interior of the airplane as her secretive partner led them to their seats. When she saw that he had slowed down, she called excitedly, "I call window-seat, Narumi-san!"

Ayumu sighed and allowed the girl to slide into the seat next to the window. He assumed the seat next to her and observed as she played around with the buttons and everything else she could possibly amuse herself with. As her hand reached for more buttons and knobs and little levers, Ayumu grabbed her hand and gave her a cold stare, "No more buttons."

When he finally released her hand, she pouted, massaging her fingers, "Your grip is really tight, Narumi-san."

Ayumu didn't reply. Hiyono brushed it off and situated herself to watch outside the window for the plane to take off. Finally, the voice came on the loudspeaker with the basic instructions and all the things that both young passengers listened to but didn't really feel like hearing. Both buckled their seatbelts as they waited for the plane to start moving, almost impatiently.

When they finally felt the plane begin to move, Hiyono 'squee'd as she hovered over the window, watching it begin to take off.

Ayumu pulled a cooking magazine out of his carry-on bag and opened it, pretending to read so Hiyono might not bother him. As his excited friend bounced up and down as best she could, Ayumu gave an expected sigh and dug inside his jeans' pocket to find a couple packaged pieces of gum. He tossed one leisurely into her lap and stoicly explained, "It helps with the air pressure on your ears at high elevations."

Hiyono had stopped bouncing to listen intently to what her rugged brunette had to say. She then popped the gum into her mouth and stuffed the wrapper into her sock, since neither her skirt nor her sweater had pockets.

Even after the plane took off, Ayumu continued to stare blankly at the magazine while his caramel-haired accomplice stared out the window. Finally, after what seemed like an hour to Hiyono, she spoke up, "Narumi-san? How far is it to Texas?"

Without looking up from his reading material, he answered, "Flying over the Pacific will definitely be an overnight trip, so I hope you have something to occupy yourself with."

Hiyono thought for a moment, then continued with another question, this one a little more serious, "Why are we going to Texas anyway?"

"'Cause I feel like it."

She raised an eyebrow, subtly pulling out her pink notebook to jot down some info, "Oh, so you just happen to FEEL like going to Texas and you just happen to FEEL like taking me along with barely any notice whatsoever. Those tickets couldn't have been cheap. How much were they and how did you get them?"

Ayumu flipped to the next page of the cooking magazine, "I wonder how many new dishes I could make when we get there..."

Hiyono growled, "That doesn't answer my question, Narumi-san!"

"Since when has it been in my best interest to answer your questions?"

His reaction summoned the mighty combat puppets of doom and caused them to rain down on his head. Ayumu was barely able to fight off the puppet barrage while sitting next to the attacker on an airplane. After her assault, she pouted and pursed her lips, choosing to place her gaze out the window. As quickly as her rage came on, it melted away as she gaped at the world outside the window. She tugged on the shoulder of his long-sleeved black shirt, "Narumi-san, look! Look! Isn't it amazing?"

Ayumu breathed, leaning over to take a peek out the window. Despite how he was intent on keeping most of his emotions to himself, he had to admit it was beautiful. Looking down on the clouds was never something he would imagine himself doing. He felt like, because of his brother, everything and everybody was looking down on HIM. The clouds and the sky seemed so far away that he felt like it would take an endless staircase for him to touch the lowest clouds. His brother could probably touch a star by standing on tiptoe. Maybe he was exaggerating a little, but he knew that his brother would be able to figure out a more effective intelligent plan to keep Hiyono safe. Somehow, though, it felt natural to have Hiyono beside him through everything he did. Now she was sitting next to him, looking down at the clouds.

"Narumi-san? Are you alright? You have that look that says you're thinking really hard about something."

Ayumu shifted his head to look at her, in the process realizing his position. He had leaned over her to look out the window on her other side. The close proximity caused him to draw back into his former position and clear his throat, uttering, "I'm fine."

Of course, his female comrade did not believe him, and she was right in doing so. However, she also knew that he would tell her what was wrong when he was ready.

Ayumu counted nearly four hours before he could tell Hiyono was getting really hungry. The first sign was her shifting uncomfortably in her seat. Next was her obnoxiously loud stomach making its own complaints. Finally she began to announce her hunger to him verbally.

He poked the middle-aged businessman in front of him again to check the time, since Ayumu most likely couldn't be trusted to be bothered with bringing a watch. The man looked at his watch and replied. It was around six o'clock, she should be getting hungry. To cease her near-complaining, Ayumu stopped the nearest flight attendant and asked for something to eat for both of them. The flight attendant nodded a response and continued on her way.

It was almost a half an hour before the girl came back with both their dinners. Hiyono didn't bother to wait to dig into her food. Ayumu took a bit every now and then until Hiyono began to speak, some food still in her mouth, "Ya know, this stuff doesn't even come close to your cooking, Narumi-san."

Ayumu shifted his eyes to look at her, "At least this way you're not stealing my lunch."

Hiyono pouted and stuffed another bite into her mouth.

After dinner, the flight attendant took their plates away and Hiyono picked up a bigger notebook out of her carry-on bag. She began writing and her writing didn't stop until the sunset interrupted her. She halted mid-penstroke and pressed her face to the glass, "Oh, Narumi-san, look at THAT! I've never seen anything so beautiful!"

"I can't while your nose is shoved against the window." came his nonchalant cold reply.

Hiyono pulled back from the window so he could see the sunset. When he went to glance at it, he did a double-take. The sheer raw beauty and wonder that the clouds, the shadows, the colors of red, orange, yellow, blue, pink and purple that framed the natural masterpiece was enough to make anyone do a double-take. Ayumu was baffled at how something so simple could be so beautiful. His eyes swung to look at Hiyono. Yep, it was baffling all right. After gazing at it for a couple minutes, both Ayumu and Hiyono righted themselves in their seats and settled back to occupying themselves. Ayumu used the magazine to cover his face as he leaned his head back to take a nap. Hiyono oggled at the sunset for a while, chewing on the end of her pen.

When Ayumu awoke, the magazine had fallen off of his face and some of the other passengers had their over-head lights on. Taking a glance at the pitch-black outside the window, he concluded easily that it must be at least nine o'clock. His chocolate eyes pivoted to see where Hiyono was. That's when he felt something on his shoulder. He diverted his head to find his honey-haired Watson leaning her head on his shoulder, fast asleep. Her legs were curled up under her and her cheek reclined on his shoulderbone. Her hair had been liberated from its braids and now it hung messily about her, some of it spilling onto Ayumu's arm and chest. Nearly shocked and quite flabbergasted, Ayumu was about to try to move her when something hit him. He wondered if Madoka had figured out his little escapade yet, since cell phones couldn't be used on the plane.

Suddenly the flight attendant came over and spoke loudly in a voice that he dubbed was more annoying than Hiyono's, "Do you like, want anything, Sir? Like, a pillow or something?" The girl's voice made Hiyono emit a quiet groan and nuzzle her cheek against Ayumu's shoulder. Putting his thoughts of Hiyono on hold for a while, he shook his head, giving her a hard stare.

"What about, like, a drink or a blanket or something to eat or-"

Ayumu held up his hand to keep her from saying anything more, "We're fine." his stern voice echoed. Man, people had the worst timing. He was sincerely pleased that cell phones had to be turned off. Madoka had probably figured out by now and was trying desperately to get a hold of him. She was the last person he wanted to hear from.

However, dealing with and thinking about Madoka could definitely wait. Right now he had to deal with what was laying on his shoulder at the moment. As his eyes fell on her again, he began to be overcome by the strange feeling not to wake her up. She looked so peaceful and serene. After he had so abruptly dragged her on a plane to the other side of the world, she hadn't complained about it once. Now that he thought about it, she had allowed him to sleep on her shoulder once, so she technically should be entitled to do the same. He couldn't put into words nor admit to himself the thoughts and feelings beginning to course through him. He slowly and hesitantly lifted his arm from her grasp, so as not to wake her up.

With his newly-freed arm, he shakily and tentatively rested his arm on the seat, behind her. After a few moments his arm crept over to wrap gently around her shoulders. His sleepiness led him to rest his head on hers and close his eyes, "Good night, Hiyono."

**Personally, I really like the end of this chapter. I think it's so sweet. But anywho, I didn't want to get into too much detail here because the main focus is still in Texas and this is the Airport/Airplane chapter. Either way, I haven't completely figured out Chapter Three so I can't really post a good preview for it, but I hope to update soon, so hang in there for me! Ah, yesh, and I do like reviews, yesyes, it urges me on! And I would like some feedback on how the story's developing and grammar and spelling and such. And do forgive any other technical mishaps I have dealing with airplanes and such, it's been a long time since I was last riding one(but do inform me of these mishaps). Also, forgive me if any of this seems a bit out of character and do tell me if it is! 'Til next time, everybody!**


	3. The Arrival

**EARLY UPDATE, YOU GUYS! WHOOT!**

"Narumi-san, you lazy bum! Hurry! We have to find our luggage!"

Oi. Ayumu reached a hand up to massage his throbbing head. Hiyono had successfully accomplished the task of giving him a headache mentally AND physically. She had bolted from her sleep with a jolt and brashly whacked her hard skull against his head. He made a mental note to buy some pain medication as soon as they could find a drug store.

That's when it hit him, and apparently Hiyono as well. She turned to face him as she reached the baggage carousel, "Uh, Narumi-san? Where ARE we going and HOW are we going to get there?"

Ayumu's plan was to: 1) Apprehend Madoka's plane tickets (check), 2) Apprehend Hiyono and drag her to the airport (check), 3) Get on the plane and fly to Texas (check).

If he didn't already have a headache, Ayumu would have used one of the airport walls as a punching bag for his head. He hadn't thought that far. Now he and Hiyono were stuck in the middle of a completely unfamiliar country with no guidance whatsoever, no transportation, and no idea what they were doing.

Oh dang. Ayumu didn't even think about hotels. There was no way he could afford such a thing and he barely had any money with him (which he had to get converted to dollars anyway). Not only had he not thought about hotels, he hadn't thought about sleeping arrangements. Even if he could afford a hotel, he would not be able to afford a room with any more than one bed. That was a problem; though if he had to, he supposed he could probably sleep on the floor.

The even bigger problem was figuring out where they were going to go next. First he would worry about their luggage, then the money conversions, then maybe they could worry about what to do.

After retrieving all the luggage and reaching the airport lobby, Ayumu planted the baggage and Hiyono near a small group of empty chairs.

While Ayumu walked off to do something else, Hiyono sat there in deep thought. Where he had acquired those plane tickets, she honestly didn't want to know. The fact that Ayumu never answered her question (along with his facial expression) gave her the impression that Ayumu had no idea what he was doing at the moment. Knowing him, he'd figure out something by the time he came back, but this stunt seemed more spontaneous and drastic than she'd ever seen in him before. The more she thought about it, the more she thought that something had threatened him to the point that he was afraid for her safety. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered to take her with him. She was in no way complaining; it had been a little sudden but she could never hesitate to help him or be by his side. It wasn't too often that he showed his feelings towards her and all they had gone through together had almost left her with a craving for his attention. Though she never showed it, she loved when he showed the barest hints of sweet humanity when he was naive enough to think she wasn't paying attention or too dense to catch it. Just the night before he was careless enough to think she was actually asleep when he wrapped his arm around her and leaned his head on hers. It took her a while to keep herself quiet and pretend to be asleep long enough to settle herself down. Finally, she had calmed herself long enough to let herself fall asleep.

She sighed happily. This whole trip may be more interesting than she thought.

"'Ello there."

The warm voice made Hiyono jump from her seat with a surprised yelp. The voice laughed, "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to give ya' a fright there, Miss, you just seemed kinda down out here all by your lonesome."

She spun around in her seat to see who had startled her. The voice had something of a mix between accents from Australia, England, and the Southern United States. The young man in which the friendly and heavily-twanged voice belonged to took off his hat. In one fluid movement he bowed swiftly, apologetically, and respectfully. He then rose to meet her bright brown eyes with his cat-like green ones.

Hiyono had to admit he wasn't bad-looking. His long dirty-blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the base of his neck. He had to be around eighteen to twenty years of age. He had a deep, warm, and friendly face and a tan complexion. The stranger jerked his head to flip his bangs out of his eyes before he put his hat back on. He then extended a friendly hand to her, "The name's Flynn, pleased to meet ya, little lady."

She stared at his hand, then took it and gently shook it, hoping she remembered American manners correctly, "I'm Hiyono...Yuizaki, pleased to meet you too." Well, Flynn seemed pleased with it, so she took it that she had remembered correctly. He grinned, "So, where'd you come from? Hiyono doesn't sound like a name from around here."

Hiyono took a quick glance around for Ayumu before answering, "Nope. We just flew in from Japan."

Flynn let out a slight breath of relief, "So there's someone here with you, that's a good thing, there. We Texans are known to be Gents, but ya never know what kinda scrap you'll get into if you come alone. Especially a young lady like yourself."

Hiyono nodded, a smile forming on her face. Flynn seemed like a nice guy, and just maybe she could charm her way into getting both she and Ayumu a place to stay until whenever her significant other decided to leave.

"Unfortunately, we don't have a hotel yet and we're low on money." her eyes shifted to the floor.

Flynn laughed heartily, "No worries! You and...whoever you're with...can stay over our joint!"

Hiyono tilted her head, speaking softly and sweetly, "But, where is your place? Will there be room? I'd hate to be a burden..."

Flynn shook his head, his ponytail shaking back and forth, "Nonsense! There's plenty 'a room for y'all." he chuckled as he went on.

Ayumu sighed heavily as he finally finished all the 'stupid pointless airport procedures' and such. He began to walk back towards Hiyono. Oddly enough he still hadn't figured out something to do about where they were going and where they were going to stay. His eyebrows furrowed when he looked towards Hiyono and saw someone talking to her.

As Ayumu got closer, Hiyono caught his eye and sprang to her feet, running over to meet him, a huge grin on her face. As soon as she was close enough for her to hear him and his low-toned voice, she spoke excitedly, "I found us a place to stay, Narumi-san!"

Ayumu was speechless (though he made sure not to let on to it). How on Earth did she do it? She just stood there grinning as a tall, blonde cowboy sauntered over, a welcoming, almost Hiyono-like cat grin on his face. When he arrived beside Hiyono, she introduced him, "Narumi-san, this is Flynn-san, he's offered us a place to stay!"

Flynn chuckled again, "Please, Yuizaki-chan, the -san ain't necessary...just Flynn."

Hiyono smiled, "Only if you stop with the Yuizaki-chan...Just Hiyono...I like the way Americans call each other by their given names!" she giggled.

Hiyono then bit her tongue as she watched Ayumu's hard expression. He didn't seem to be amused in the least. Flynn extended a friendly hand, "So, mate, you got a first name or you want me ta call ya Narumi...cheese, that sounds weird..."

Ayumu shifted his eyes from Flynn's hand to the blonde's eyes, his eyebrows still knitted in a frown. Finally, he replied coldly, "Ayumu."

Even though Hiyono heard his reply, she knew from the brunette's tone that he'd rather Flynn not call him by his name at all. She also knew for a fact that Ayumu didn't like being called Narumi...it reminded him of his brother...though for some reason he didn't seem to mind when she did it.

Hiyono gave Flynn a nervous laugh as she tugged Ayumu to the side by his arm, "Heh heh, excuse us a minute."

Flynn simply nodded and let his eyes wander around the airport, searching for something to entertain him.

Hiyono bent in a huddle position to whisper to her friend, "Narumi-san, be nice! He wants to help us, he has room for us, and unless you have a better idea, this seems like the best option!"

Ayumu avoided eye contact and cast his death glare to the floor. When she failed to catch his eye, she confiscated his wrist and giving his arm gentle tugs until he looked up at her. When he did look at her, it was with reluctance. By now Hiyono could easily decipher his complicated expression, "C'mon, Narumi-san, we'll be fine! It's not like he's some serial murderer bent on world destruction."

Hiyono stole a glance at Flynn as he twirled his cowboy hat around his finger, bored, while humming something of a tune.

Hiyono continued, "Besides, do we have a choice?"

Finally Ayumu gave a sigh, indicating he had given up. Hiyono's exuberant grin emerged to take over once again.

Thirty minutes later Ayumu found himself in the crammed back-seat of a pick-up truck, country music blaring from the speakers behind him. Hiyono was chatting with Flynn up front while he sulked in the seat behind her, staring out the window to distract himself from the music and the company.

"So why were you at the airport, Flynn-san?" he heard her ask.

"Well, Little Lady, I just came back from me' own 'homeland to visit Ma. She stayed in the ol' Aussie ranch while Pa and I came to the States."

"Wow...so how many countries have you lived in, Flynn-san?"

The blonde shrugged, "At least four...I was born in England before we moved to Australia, I lived in Japan for a couple months...My Pa travels alot, so up until recently I was livin' all over th' place."

"Whoa...it must've been exciting!"

Flynn shrugged, "It was awright, but it doesn't give a bloke much time ta meet anyone."

By this time, Ayumu was intently trying to ignore the conversation going on in the truck and try to focus on the scenery out the window. The more he watched, the less civilization he saw as more and more 'wilderness' began to appear. A little voice in the back of his mind began to nag him as fields began to pop up here and there. His eyes widened as the truck passed a field of big black-and-white animals eating something off the ground. _What...are those?_ was his only thought.

Ayumu's confoundment (for lack of a better term) could only continue as the street signs became less and less over time. Finally, he closed his eyes, hoping that confounded headache would cease and when he opened his eyes the rest of the "confoundment" would disappear as well.

"We're here you two!" Flynn's 'annoying' accented voice sounded like an egg timer, to Ayumu anyway. He reluctantly opened his eyes, but refused to look out the window. However, when he finally exited the pickup, he was greeted with Hiyono's awes and the very place he expected (yet didn't want) to be. Yet, still Flynn HAD to announce it.

"Welcome ta the ranch, mates!"

**End Chapter Three! I'm sorry, I love Flynn. I think the idea came to me because I needed some way for Ayumu and Hiyono to get from the airport to the ranch, so, Flynn kind of evolved out of that need. Anywho, Not the sweetest, most satisfying, fluffiest of chapters, but it had to be written. I know Ayumu seems a little crabby in this chapter, but if you were in a foreign country, had a throbbing headache, and had a hyperactive teen and a strange cowboy tagging along with you, wouldn't you be a little cranky too? Next chapter features Ayumu coming face-to-face with live livestock...and horses. Flynn tries to teach Hiyono how to horse-back ride, while Ayumu looks on with disdain. Finally, Ayumu finds Hiyono outside, staring at the clear, bright stars while in her pajamas.**

Here's a little shout-out to my reviewers!

Madam Spooky: First review! Yay! Here's the third chapter for ya! Ayumu and Hiyono in another country, alone, in the middle of "uncivilization!" Fwi!

Sony89: You've hung with me for a long while now and I really appreciate the support, yesyes! Hahaa, if you have any more airplane/airport advice for me, do let me know!

Prodigy Keyblade Wielder: -Blush- Thank you much!! Haha! Here's chapter three for ya! Dundun DUN! (Texas rocks, by the way! ;-) So awesome!)

ayane04: No need for dying of suspense! The weekly update is here! Tada!! Thank ya soo much for the support and for 'falling in love' with my story:-D Please do hang around for future chapters! 

Jamarie: Thank you much!! Hehe, yes it is random, even for me, but randomness can be quite interesting, wouldn't ya say? And I will tell how I got the idea...later...I hope I didn't keep ya hangin' too long! 'Til next time!

Juuroku-sama: Hehee, here's what happens next! yepyep! Thank you much for support! ( ;-) No worries![about forgetting to review :-P Forgetfulness seems to run very deeply in my family, so no big deal -shrug-) Hang in there for Chapter Four please!

DianaMe: Haha, please don't die. I don't like having blood on my hands, it's not pretty or comfy. Thanks so much for story-love! Please keep readin'!

Sicilian Maiden: Many thanks for your support and such! Yes! Haha, only a couple days after your update, no? Not too bad, I'd say. Here's next Chap. for your reading delight, do keep reading, yes?

BeAuTifuL SmiLe: Thanks for the support and the favorite:-D Here's the third chapter as ASAP as possible! Do please keep readin'!

Finally, Love to everybody that reads the story(And the people that don't, hahaa). I'm so glad you all hung in with me and please tell me what you think of this chapter and of the 'strange blonde cowboy' that seems to love popping in out of nowhere! Any constructive critism and/or corrections are welcome too! Please hang in there! (Haha, and hang in with Flynn too...the way he talks sounds a bit strange and he doesn't always have good grammar, but Flynn needs love too:-P ) 


	4. The Ranch

Ayumu could barely believe what was happening. If Flint or whatever his name was thought they were going to stay a while, he was dead wrong. Ayumu decided that sometime during his stay(as soon as possible) he would cave in and call Rio to find out when Kanone was planning on leaving Japan. There wasn't ANY way Ayumu was going to stay in the middle of nowhere any more than he had to.

He silently and sulkily followed as Flynn escorted Hiyono, in a very gentlemanly manner, into the very large three story ranch-house. The ranch-house looked more like a house fit for over twenty people. It was even wider than it was tall. The dark wood exterior seemed typical of a ranch-house that big.

Ayumu didn't really pay attention to much of anything Flynn was telling Hiyono or what "grimy flea-headed cowboy" he was introducing her to. The house seemed unnervingly clean, however, so Ayumu deducted that there had to be at least one female acting as the housekeeper in the gigantic place. Whether it was somebody's wife or a housemaid, he couldn't tell.

For some reason, Ayumu didn't even notice what rooms he(and Hiyono) were being shown, including the kitchen. All of a sudden he found himself staring at a door while Hiyono flung herself onto her bed in the room across the hall. He didn't turn around to look at Hiyono or her room as he hesitantly opened the door and studied his surroundings. Flynn had long left to tend to something to do with chores or whatnot.

The room had a polished dark wood floor and warm caramel/honey-colored wallpaper. Both of those adjectives made Ayumu think of Hiyono's hair. With a shiver, he quickly shook the thought and continued his study.

It had a gentle country feel to it. The queen-size bed sat against the left wall with a dark forest-green bedspread. What Ayumu noticed the most, however, was the fact that two of the walls had huge windows, both with long green curtains hiding the light from the room. At least it was clean, Ayumu's rare positive side suggested. He ignored it and hesitantly set his bags down at the foot of the bed on a wooden chest.

With that, he nearly collapsed on the bed as the unusual silence let him slip into a silent sleep.

A high pitched whinny and ridiculously loud voices rustled Ayumu from his sleep. When he mussed his hair and managed to walk outside the door and find his way outside, he saw the most one thing he never expected to see. He sped up to a light jog to get closer. When he stopped beside the fence, he stood and stared for a long time as he observed the object of his confusion.

The object of his scrutiny wore a tan-colored cowboy hat, a sleeveless periwinkle blue shirt and brown-leather fringed riding chaps over a pair of jeans, her hair hanging over her shoulders in the traditional braids. However, the braids looked totally different on her while she wore that cowboy hat. She stood next to something large and chestnut-colored, stroking its short fur while listening to someone else instruct her.

Ayumu's first thought was to faint. His adorable little Watson was going to ride a twelve-thousand pound animal with a mind of its own! He didn't even have time to recognize his second thought before he turned away. He was stopped by the very subject of his rather oddly-timed overprotectiveness.

"Narumi-san!!" She waved extravagantly before the middle-aged man instructing her began talking again.

"She really wants ta ride, don't she?" Flynn's voice reached Ayumu as Flynn came to stand next to the young detective at the fence. Flynn leaned his elbows leisurely on the fence and watched the girl and the horse in the middle of the ring, "How much ya wanna bet she'll end up perty flippin' good at it?"

The brunette didn't answer either question. After a few minutes and glances between Hiyono and Ayumu, Flynn sighed and handed Ayumu a rake, "Sorry mate, but since you're up, boss says you'll hafta earn your keep, like the rest of us."

Ayumu stared in dismay at the rake, then to the barn Flynn pointed to, in complete disbelief of what he was told to do. He should have suspected this. Tyrannical cowboy pirates bent on capturing innocent travelers and forcing them to labor tirelessly. Okay, so maybe that was a LITTLE over-exagerrating, but Ayumu still felt they were evil. A hideously dark scowl painted his face as he took the rake and headed into barn and towards the first stall. The stench nearly made him want to gag.

For a few minutes, he stood there holding his nose and glaring at his dastardly foe: big, dark, smelly, lumpish animal piles sprawled over the sawdust-covered floor. It almost felt as if they were mocking him. Overall, he couldn't believe he was here of all places being forced to do worst chores. Following Hiyono around everywhere was even more entertaining than this. Then again, following her around could be more entertaining than many things. This was absolutely ridiculous. He was beginning to wonder which was worse: Staying here, or going back to Japan and facing Kanone.

He didn't even know how to clean up this stuff. He muzzled a growl and stepped towards a pile of dung. He stared down at it for a while before stabbing a part of it with the rake.

Under better circumstances, he probably would have done differently, but a couple things probably hindered his mental process. Somehow the thought of Hiyono riding a horse disgruntled his insides. Whether it was because Flynn was there, or something else...like...maybe...Maybe it was the fact that he was placing her safety in the hands of a thousand-pound animal and a bunch of rowdy cowboys. Even in situations with the Blade Children and the Hunters, he always had some involvement in Hiyono's well-being. Giving that up was the hardest part. Then again, as he thought about it, maybe that was why he took her to Texas in the first place. Perhaps not to shield her from all danger, but to always make sure he had say in her safety.

Flynn's chuckle interrupted the detective from his private musings(which had left Ayumu with a look of stubborn shame and defeat at his own thoughts).

Ayumu turned quickly to stare blankly at the tall young cowboy. Flynn pointed to the rake, "You ain't been around horses much, eh, mate?"

Flynn took the rake gingerly from Ayumu's hands and shook the stabbed poop off of it. With that, he swiftly scooped the entire pile with the muck rake and deposited it in the wheelbarrow.

After flipping his hair out of his face, he adjusted his black cowboy hat and gave the muck rake back to Ayumu; he then grabbed a device that looked much like a shovel and joined the Japanese youth, much to the latter's dismay.

It was only expected that the Narumi would learn quickly. After a few minutes of silence, (Which consisted of Ayumu stoically staring at the rake as he shoveled and Flynn effortlessly scooping up piles and dumping them in the wheelbarrow) Flynn stood up straight and wiped the sweat and blonde hair from his forehead with his forearm, "Ya learn fast, Narumi. Nice work."

He leaned on the shovel and smiled, "So why'd ya and little Hiyono-chan come alone? Her 'rents know ya got 'er in another country alone with you?"

When Ayumu stared at the sawdust, refusing to answer, the older boy sighed and shrugged, hanging the shovel on its place on the wall and sauntering out of the barn.

Narumi didn't even look up. He simply busied his mind trying to focus on his work so he wouldn't think about the trip or Hiyono or that jerk again.

Ayumu found himself in front of a full wheelbarrow and surveying two spotlessly clean stalls when he heard loud noises that sounded roughly like cheers coming from outside the barn. With muck rake in hand, he slowly meandered his way outside until he could see the outside ring.

A group of people were leaning and sitting on the edge of a section of the fence watching the action in the ring as well.

The cantering rider and horse circled the ring and two figures standing in the middle. From what Ayumu could see, one of the figures was the old man instructor. Suddenly it occurred to him as the rider passed his side of the fence.

She had excellent posture, straight back, heels down in the stirrups, her right hand grasping the reins and resting on the pommel, her left hand resting on her leg. Her cowboy hat was pulled down over her ears and her hair flapped on her shoulders with the horse's movements.

Somehow she looked so natural and beautiful on that horse. Ayumu immediately gave himself a mental slap in the face for the thought popping into his head.

She slowed the horse to a trot back to the middle of the ring. The other figure approached her and talked to her for a while, standing next to her on her horse. Ayumu's eyes narrowed slightly.

Flynn...

Who did that guy think he was? Why in the world did he offer them a place to stay? Maybe he just wanted a laugh at the stupid city-slickers...or maybe...

Ayumu's eyes narrowed further.

It was then that she caught sight of him. Her face lit up with a huge white smile.

"Narumi-san!! Did you see?!! I'm riding a horse!!" Hiyono's excited voice bounced from her seat on the fifteen-hand equine as she cantered up to his place on the fence.

Ayumu didn't answer. Just the sight of that girl in a tan cowboy hat and fringed brown chaps over a pair of jeans took back any words he could have said. The chestnut quarter horse shook its mane and snorted in concordance.

With a bit of effort, Hiyono slowly used the stirrup to descend from her equine throne, struggling a bit to get her feet on the ground. Once she could feel her feet again, she scampered up to Ayumu (the fence still between them) and grinned ecstatically, barely resisting the urge to jump up and down, "I can't believe I did it, Narumi-san!! Flynn-san taught me..."

Ayumu's lips quirked, staring at her fumbles with a little of his old mirth, "I'm surprised you didn't fall off, stupid girl."

Hiyono puffed out her lip and crossed her arms, "That's not nice, Narumi-san!"

Flynn and the older instructor followed to the fence and stood beside the young female rider. A cocky grin spread across Flynn's tan face as he took hold of the horse's reins. He turned his gaze to Ayumu, "Ya wanna take a try, mate?"

Flynn chuckled at Ayumu's response, "I take th' terrifyin' murderous glare ta be a 'no'. "

At that, Flynn swiftly and effortlessly swung himself onto the saddle and steered the horse around, urging it into a canter with his heels and kicking up dust in his wake.

Hiyono climbed over the fence to stand next to her companion, "I never knew it would be so fun to wear pants!"

A few of the other younger cowboys and stablehands shuffled over to Hiyono to talk to her and congratulate her on her riding. Once again Ayumu found himself on the outside. His assistant was getting so much attention here. It brought a pang of something inside him. Now that she was getting so much attention, she didn't seem to have much attention for him anymore. He missed when she bugged him about making her food and dragged him out for almost no reason. He even missed when she stole his lunches. He felt like his world was coming apart and yet he was too stubborn to admit it.

It was only when the dinner bell rang and everybody started heading back towards the house that Ayumu realized it was already late afternoon.

As Flynn dismounted the horse, he spotted Hiyono still standing at the fence, Ayumu standing a few yards away from her. He grinned and waved, "Go ahead, mates, I'll be there in a jif."

Ayumu nearly snorted. Yeah, as IF he was waiting for Flynn. He then turned his eyes to Hiyono, who waved to Flynn and turned back to her closest friend. She smiled and jogged over, grabbing his wrist and dragging him back to the ranch-house.

It was strange watching him not eat. True, he didn't always eat that often, and the way he stared at the mashed potatoes in disdain was a bit amusing, but he hadn't had anything to eat for at least a day and all he did was stare at his food. While everyone was buried in conversation and eating, Hiyono was worrying about Narumi-san.

After everyone had eaten desert, a stablehand, a little older than Flynn, by the name of Jack, was extravagantly telling a ghost story, his gestures and expressions creating the mood more than the actual story. Ayumu was looking on uninterested. Hiyono nudged him gently with her elbow(as she was sitting next to him) to get him to tell what he was thinking.

He didn't speak, but Hiyono knew that he had some kind of simple yet genius explanation for the spooky story that Jack was telling. When Ayumu stood prematurely, he proceeded to walk up to his room, surprised at himself for remembering where it was.

Hiyono watched him leave, a bit downhearted. She was about to follow when the old ranch instructor (and owner of the farm), Blake, began talking to her about riding techniques.

It was another forty-five minutes before Hiyono had a chance to say thank-you for the dinner and scamper up to her room. At the entrance, she glanced at Ayumu's door and turned to stand in front of it. She raised her hand to knock, but hesitated and decided against it.

She trudged slowly into her room and closed the door behind her. As she began sorting through her suitcases, her mind wandered. She wondered why Ayumu had brought her here in the first place, and she wondered when the were going back. Most of all, she wondered if he was alright.

As she walked over to her window and opened it, she looked up and saw the blanket of stars...

Ayumu growled as he rolled over again on the bed. He had no idea why he couldn't sleep. Finally, he gave up and stood, feeling a little hungry and not caring whatsoever if he used the ranch's food to make himself something to eat.

As he shuffled slowly out of his room, he stopped and stared at Hiyono's ajar door. He had a strange urge to peek inside, but shook it off and silently made his way to the darkness of downstairs. As he was about to enter the kitchen, his eye caught sight of something outside the window.

He looked closer to find the moonlit outline of a figure sitting on the fence. It didn't take Ayumu long to realize who it was. He'd know that outlined figure anywhere.

He finally found the doorknob and tiptoed outside, closing the door behind him while trying to keep it from squeaking.

She could hear his footsteps as he towards her, he had a distinct step. When she heard his footsteps stop, she waited for him to either speak or appear next to her.

"What are you doing out here in your pajamas in the middle of the night, stupid girl?" his voice came from behind her.

She replied without turning around, "I'm watching the stars..."

After a while of silence, she continued, "Narumi-san? Why did you bring me here? Just wondering...Are you...afraid?"

He was silent for a while, then answered, "No."

"Narumi-san, it's alright to be afraid sometimes. Pretending that it doesn't exist just makes it worse."

When he didn't respond, she turned around and hopped down from her perch to stand in front of him, a painfully honest look in her eyes, "To be honest, I was afraid of coming out of the country like this, but I knew you'd protect me. So I'd have nothing to worry about, even if we came having no idea what we were going to do or how we were going to live. I would go into the arms of death as long as you'd come with me."

Everything she said almost went in one ear and out the other, it took a while for him to really understand what she said. He looked her over, subtly, to keep her from noticing. She had redone her braids from earlier in the day and she wore a long-sleeved silk pajama top and pants, wearing boots on her feet so she wouldn't accidentally step in some sort of animal droppings.

Before he could respond to her heart-felt comment, she wrapped her arms around his middle tightly, shutting her eyes tightly and leaning her head on his chest, "Thank you for staying with me, Narumi-san."

Ayumu, a bit taken aback, stared down at her for a while. After a few moments, she began to pull away and clear her throat when Ayumu took her by the shoulders and jerked her back to him. He held onto her shoulders firmly, tugging her to his chest. When he finally spoke, he whispered softly and forcefully, "Now sing."

Hiyono, initially shocked, began to protest, "Narumi-sa-"

"Be quiet. No talking. Just sing."

She relaxed and leaned her head and hands on his chest. She could hear his warm pulsing heartbeat and she could feel every breath vibrate through his body. She closed her eyes and whispered compliantly, "What do you want me to sing, Narumi-san...?"

He obnoxiously rested his chin on her head, "That weird song that I hate so much."

If she weren't wrapped inside his arms with no hope of escape (no desire to escape, rather), she might have took it differently, but instead she smiled and began to sing.

"Outside the window...

Kira kira kirari..."

Ayumu stared down at her hair for a while, then closed his eyes.

"A shooting star streaks...

Kira kira kirari

The moon glows brightly

Yura yura yurari..."

He lifted his head from his chin-rest and gently leaned part of his head on hers.

"Napping so peacefully

In the ocean of the stars..."

Fully resting the side of his head against hers, he closed his eyes again and rubbed his head almost affectionately against her own.

"Then somebody came along

And waved their special magic wand

Spreading the magic of love to all..."

"Hey Narumi-san?"

"Hn." he didn't bother to move from his position, and she didn't bother to move from hers.

"I'm not the only one in long pajamas...but at least I don't have a bed-head."

**I'm SOOO sorry it's so late everybody!! School started the beginning of this week and everything's so busy!! But here it is! Finally...Chapter 4! I know this chapter is really long, but I had to make it as compact as possible to get to where I wanted at the end of the chapter. This chapter focuses a little more of Ayumu's point of view and I think the speed of the chapter reflects a bit of the almost-panicked state that Ayumu has fallen into by this point in time. His plans have fallen apart, he feels as though his girl is slowly being stolen away from him, he's in a foreign country amongst animals he's never seen before in his life...I'd probably be a little panicked by now if I was him. Forgive me if any of this was out of character...again, it was kind of rushed and I couldn't really go into anything about the farm or the people there in this chapter. I really like the end of this, it makes me want to fluff my feathers like a fluffy little owl and snuggle into my seat...yes, strange analogy I know...I also know that that one line of Hiyono's about the arms of death or whatnot is probably pretty cheesy, but what can I say? I'm a cheese-ball myself and somehow I could imagine Hiyono saying something that honest and cheesy and the same time...**

If you guys can tell, I'm a horse-back rider myself, so let me know if there is any terminology I need to clarify!(Like pommel, that's the part where the saddle horn sits on a Western saddle...if I remember correctly)

Preview: Flynn and a few of the other cowboys take Hiyono to see the nearest town and the...oopsie...secret...you guys will see, with Ayumu tagging along. This coming chapter is a little more fun and/or humorous so the panicky angst is almost absent right here. It's one of the chapters that ties some of the other chapters together, not to mention it's fun to write. I'll be putting it up as soon as possible.

Oki, reviewer-shout-out time:-P

ayane04: Mwahahaaahahahaaa #4 is here!! At this rate, I hope you don't kill all your teddy bears! ;-) (Especially since I have problems finding time to update...next time you might kill your teddy bear out of frustration rather than excitement...I hope not though...) return kisses!(hehehe, not literally)

Sony89: Thank God I won't have to do another airplane chapter for a while and have to keep pretending I know what I'm talking about! Hehee, yes, I like Flynn too...and his character will be explored deeper in coming chapters, yesyes.

DianaMe: I hope it again gets better! Hopefully... and here is Chapter Number 4! Ta-da!

Mrs.Ash Ketchum: Alas, a writer after my own heart...or mind...or whichever...The Texas idea came from an idea that came to me that stemmed from the title that wouldn't work in Japan or all that many other places. It probably could have worked in a couple other places, but Texas was the most obvious and easy to understand for us who don't live in Texas. I will explain fully towards the end when my plans are revealed. Somehow you read my ideas out of my mind or something...Tootles for now!

BeAuTifuL SmiLe: Updated as soon as humanly possible...unfortunately it wasn't as soon as I had hoped... -.- Hehee, I hope you like this chapter...truthfully the last one was a little boring to write...yet somehow Flynn makes the boring chapters fun to write:-D

Sicilian Maiden: Mwahaha, is the jealousy THAT obvious? Don't worry, I can't give away the end, but Hiyono's too smart to let herself be stolen. Thank you SO much for staying with me for this long! I want to try to get a few original books published someday, so I hope my writing could make it that far! (P.S. Mwahaha this means you must now update your story!) evil grin

Jewely2951: I'm glad my 'lamo excuse' wasn't that bad! I can completely understand where you're coming from about story-compatibility. Believe me, I have nearly the entire story(except for the very last chapter or two) all planned out and it will all be revealed in the future. I can't reveal anything else right now, but you will definitely see it all pan out over time. Sorry for the late update! Thanks alot for the input, compliments, and support!

Juuroku-sama: TEEHEE! Here's one of your Ayumu-suffering chapters, delivered personally to your door! (Or, rather, your computer screen) Yes, Flynn is quite a character...and we will see more of him in the future...

AsianGlitter: Hahaha, well, for my largely-scaled plan to work, they had to be in the U.S., but since this is Ayumu we're talking about, where would he get the money for plane tickets himself? And plus, the airplane-ticket stealing adds to the drama of it all! Mwahahaha! 


	5. The Surprise

**I am SOOOOO sorry everybody!!! School is evil!!! But I vow that I will try to update at least once or twice a month(since I so stupidly started another chapter fic for another series recently) Anywho! It's about time for Chapter 5!!! Ahem, and this chapter is dedicated to Sici-chan, aka Sicilian Maiden, who is, ahem, totally awesome! I'll be praying for you, Sici-chan!! stops on stupid cancer germs -Die, cancer loserface!- And now...the Cheeseball, aka me, will continue with the story!**

He didn't even know what it was that made him continue to hold her, but whatever it was, it didn't want to let her go. It only took a moment before he realized that maybe it was the something deep inside him that wanted to affirm that she belonged to him and no one would change that. Perhaps holding her like this was his way of telling her that. Either way, neither of them bothered to pull away.

Hiyono could feel his rhythmic warm breath on her neck and his heart pumping blood into the rest of his body. The feeling made her shiver. Finally, he spoke, ignoring the fact that he knew breathing on her neck like that sent tingles up her spine, "That bed-head comment wasn't nice, you know."

She pulled back just enough to look at him and smile, a bit uneasily, "I can fix it, Narumi-san."

Ayumu still had no idea why he let her rummage her hands through his hair. As she gently smoothed his hair out, he slowly closed his eyes. For some reason, it felt nice to have her like this.

Of course, the unavoidable question finally came out, "Narumi-san? What made you come out here with me like this?"

Ayumu tensed, his hands tightening on her shoulders. He made quite sure that he avoided eye contact. He could feel that irresistible stare that made him want to spill his guts out to her. By the look in her eyes, though, he could easily guess that she already knew the answer to her own question. He didn't know if her answer was right, but knowing her, it probably was.

"Narumi-san?"

"Hn." he continued to avoid direct eye contact.

"I don't want to go inside..." she leaned her head against his chest again.

"Then don't." the simple non-chalant answer came with an accompanying shrug.

She stuttered, "But-, but-, Narumi-san! It's-...it's so late!"

He leaned his chin on top of her head, "Don't care."

She sighed heavily and closed her eyes, snuggling her face in his pajama shirt. The action surprised him, but he didn't pull away. He continued to stand there with her so close, both randomly in their pajamas. Of course, his consisted of an old shirt he didn't wear anymore and a pair of sweatpants, but hers had little patterned magnifying glasses and sherlock holmes' hats all over them. Yep, she was still Hiyono.

Ayumu tilted his head to look down at her. He was ninety-nine percent sure she was sleeping! Standing up, outside, in the middle of the wilderness in Texas in the middle of the night!

Yep, definitely Hiyono all right.

He slid his hands off her shoulders and slowly encircled them around her waist so it would be easier to keep her from falling over at any given moment (or so he told himself). The feeling of her in his arms like this was so strange, yet that little part of him that he never wanted to listen to knew that he liked having her in his arms like this. The part he didn't want to admit was that it helped him convince himself that she was his, no matter what happened, where they went, or who interfered.

He let out a deep breath and leaned down to embrace her sleeping form fully, burrying his face in her hair.

Irises. That was it. Her hair smelled like irises. He had the strangest feeling that she had bought shampoo that smelled like irises on purpose. He had the even stranger feeling that he had something something to do with her choice of shampoo. Man, that sounded so weird.

He felt her weight slump against him. Yep, she was definitely asleep. He slowly and carefully leaned over and somehow his hands found the backs of her knees as he hoisted her into a bridal position. He groaned at her sudden weight. Maybe those potatoes and bags of chips finally began to move the weight scale. Then again, he still had no idea where it all went.

Her head fell against his shoulder as he began walking towards the door to the massive ranchhouse. His eyes slowly shifted down to her, his mind trying to deny that he had the urge to look at her. His eyes took in her image bit by bit. He suddenly had the urge to see her with her hair left long. He had the strange obsessive compulsion to claw the braids from her hair.

He shook his head vigorously to get his mind from the strange things that the small voice tried to implant in his head. He bit his tongue as he tactfully opened the door while trying not to drop or wake his companion.

Hiyono let out a small groan as Ayumu used his foot to close the door squeakily behind him. He froze and stared at her as she snuggled against his chest. If she kept doing this, he would surely come undone. Snuggling was not something he was at all used to. In fact, before Hiyono came along and started falling asleep on his shoulder and such, it wasn't something that ever happened to him before.

Ayumu cleared his throat to himself to throw off his thought process again and began to slowly and carefully climb the stairs, continuing to watch her to make sure she didn't wake up.

As he arrived at her door and entered her room, he felt the strangest pang of guilt. Here he was, inside a girl's bedroom(or her designated guest-room) carrying her in his arms while she was asleep. He sighed and shook it off, laying her down on her bed gently. He stood there, leaning over her as she adjusted herself in a more comfortable sleeping position. As he began to stand and walk away, he felt a slight tug on his hand. Ayumu looked back to see the quite sleepy young girl's hand possessively curling around his own.

A sudden stubborn pang struck his heart as he slowly pulled his hand out of her grip. Her arm slumped over the side of the bed as she slowly returned to sleep.

Ayumu took one last glance at her before he closed her door behind him and returned to his own room to get some sleep.

----------------------------

"Rise and shine, old chum!" Flynn's loud and obnoxiously cheerful voice bolted Ayumu from his slumber. Perhaps it was because Ayumu had just become accustomed to Hiyono's very jolting way of waking him up, and now it was like he was being woken up by a trumpet that sounded coincidentally like a male version of Hiyono with an accent. With that, Flynn disappeared into the hall.

When Ayumu finally changed his clothes and walked downstairs, he could smell the breakfast meal from the top of the steps.

As he entered the kitchen, he was greeted by Hiyono's chipper voice, "Good morning, Narumi-san! You're late for breakfast!"

She patted the seat next to her in a motion for him to sit down. He finally gave in and silently slipped in next to her, the conversations around the table completely undisturbed. Over the spread of the long table were plates of scrambled eggs, fried eggs, omelets, sausages, pancakes, waffles, fried potatoes, hash browns, and tons of bacon.

Of course, it was no surprise that Hiyono had to try a bit of everything, food-wise. Ayumu ate some, though proceeded to be quite conservative about it.

Before Ayumu knew what was happening, he was following Hiyono to a big black Chevrolet pick-up. She clambered in the back-seat next to a skinny and scruffy-looking young brunette stablehand called Destrier, (apparently Dest for short). Hiyono thought the boy, about Ayumu's age, had the big blue eyes of a innocent but mischievous little kitten. She jumped her thoughts back into reality and scooted over in her seat to make room for Ayumu to have the window-seat. Ayumu climbed in next to her and shut the door. He didn't really care at all where they were going, but it was probably better then staying there. The stablehand named Jack stepped into the driver's seat, and Flynn took the passenger side.

The conversation in the front seats amused Hiyono greatly as Flynn nearly playfully voiced his childish dislike for having to ride in the passenger side.

"I don' see why you gotta tag along, mate. I can drive the ol' bird."

"C'mon, Flynn. Just 'cuz you can bring a lady ta the ranch and teach 'er to ride a horse doesn't mean I'm gonna let ya drive my truck. Someday you're gonna hafta learn ta quit dreamin' like a loony." Jack enjoyed a chuckle and tossed his dark hair out of his face before he revved the truck and headed speedily down the dirt road.

Soon the dirt road finally found pavement and Flynn began to point to different shops as a town began to form as the truck passed by. He talked about the shops, the people that owned them, and numerous other stuff that Hiyono couldn't seem to remember. Suddenly Flynn turned around in his seat to give Hiyono a big smile, "Close yer eyes, Hiyono-chan," he then shifted his cat-like green eyes to Ayumu, "And don'tcha dare tell 'er anythin', mate! If ya haf' to, close yer eyes yerself!"

Ayumu rolled his eyes and found himself staring at numerous chocolate wrappers stuffed in the trash can at his feet. He supposed that the chocolate had probably been consumed by Flynn or possibly Jack. Dest didn't seem to talk much; maybe that was the reason that Ayumu didn't seem to strongly dislike him as much as the others. The more Ayumu was around Flynn, the more he felt the blonde cowboy weirdo was Hiyono's long lost twin or something. To Ayumu, one Hiyono was definitely enough.

"Hey, Ayumu, why don'tcha help Hiyono-chan outta the truck? I don't want 'er ta open her eyes yet."

Ayumu sighed heavily as he and the others began to exit the parked truck. He muttered, tapping Hiyono's arm, "C'mon, let's go."

In response, she gripped his arm and let him awkwardly pull her to a place where she could get out. Even after her feet landed on the ground, she kept her eyes closed at Flynn's consistent requests and held onto Ayumu's arm so he could guide her a bit.

Ayumu tensed. He didn't like this. He probably wouldn't mind as much if they were alone and Hiyono was half asleep and it was nighttime so no one would be able to recognize him, but the broad daylight and abundance of people seemed to mock his uneasiness.

Finally, Flynn told Hiyono to open her eyes, "WOW! It's...what is it? Some kind of festival?" she asked, looking around at all the tents and the signs and a couple half-prepared rides.

Jack laughed, "It's the county fair!"

With that, Hiyono scrambled about, dragging Ayumu and Flynn along with her, while Dest seemed to tag along. Jack had to speak to some older people, and, upon asking, Flynn filled Hiyono in; Ayumu listened, but would only react if there was going to be something they wanted to force him to do.

"Well, ya see, even though we live kinda out there from the rest a' the town and the county, the ranch has been helpin' out with the county fair fer years! We're doin' it again this year, and we're participatin' too!"

"What are you participating in?" Hiyono asked eagerly.

Flynn led Hiyono and the others to some of the events that were being set up. "Well, I dunno how many I'm gonna enter or even which ones, but there's the heaviest vegetables, like pumpkins and squashes and even turnips, the art show and gallery, the eating contests, the strongest man contest, the farm show with the animals, and, oh man, there's a bunch! One I kinda wanna enter though is the cookin' contest. Rumor is that they're plannin' a pretty snazzy prize for the winner!"

Ayumu's attention sparked slightly, but his dignity held complete control. Suddenly he heard Hiyono squeal, "Narumi-san! Look! They're selling cotton candy for the people working here!" she turned to Flynn, "Could we get some, please?!"

Flynn winked, "Only if ya two agree ta help out and stay fer the fair!"

Without a second thought, Hiyono replied immediately, "Agreed!"

Ayumu opened his mouth to object, but Hiyono shoved a small wad of money in his face, no doubt lent to her by Flynn or one of the other cowboys. He sighed heavily. At least it wasn't his money this time.

He walked over to the cotton candy stand and handed the money to the girl behind the counter, who giggled and handed him two bags of cotton candy. It was only when Ayumu turned around that he realized Destrier was behind him. The boy tilted his head and stared at Ayumu for a while before speaking quietly, his voice having a hint of a Southern accent.

"You don' wanna be here."

Ayumu sniffed, "I wonder what gave that away."

"You're here because of Hiyono. She was in danger."

Ayumu looked away, trying to avoid the subject. Dang, this kid was good.

"She's happiest when she's with you."

Ayumu stopped and stared at the ground, still clutching the bags of cotton candy in his fists. He then wordlessly walked back to where Hiyono was standing. Apparently Flynn had disappeared somewhere.

She made the 'squee' noise and hugged the bag of pink sugary fluff to her chest. She then grabbed Ayumu's wrist and tugged him over to a large tent with a large space for chairs and a large stage up front. A table sat at the entrance to the tent. Flynn stood near the table and a scholarly woman with thick glasses sat at the table. A large sheet was taped to the table. Hiyono pointed to the paper as a gesture for Ayumu to read.

The brunette began to skim the words at the top, then skimmed the names written on lines under it. When he was finished reading, his eyes were wide in near disbelief, "Hiyono, tell me you didn't."

**Alas Chapter 5 has come to an end and the rising action begins! I think the first part of that chapter evolved from my yearning for fluff. It wasn't originally part of the plan, but I think I might have gotten a little carried away. I think Ayumu might get a little out of character at that part, but I say oh well. I originally intended for the fair part to be a bit longer, but I think the longer fair chapters would make up for the lack of detail in there. Do advise me my readers and faithful reviewers! I already have the plan, and mwahahahaa it makes me feel the evil someone feels when he/she knows something that no one else does. Speaking of reviewers! I wanted to ask you guys if you still want the shout-outs and if you do, how often I should do it. Whatever you guys decide, I'll start next chapter. For now, here are the Shout-outs!**

Jewely2951: drags you away to take you on horsie-back ride Yay!! Ye got all the horsie refs! Heheheee, thankies for compliments! And yes, you shall eventually see the big picture with Flynn and everything else, but not now, nopenope! evil grin

ayane04: Mwahahahhaa enjoy Ayu suffering...teeheee and it won't be the last time...Hope the fluffy part at the beginning isn't too dorky.

Sony89: maniacal laugh and the Ayu jealousy isn't over, I can assure you of that...

BeAuTifuL SmiLe: For you! And all the other fluff lovers like me! I hope the next chapter will soon be under way.

Juuroku-sama: Ah yes, we do love a suffering brooding Ayumu do we not? We make him suffer until he says and does things that make our devious little fluffy hearts go pitter-patter and thump-thump! I really like when Hiyono gets serious, because she does have that serious side and she can be very smart so it doesn't seem like she's a total hyper cheese-ball ditz like me!

Sicilian Maiden: SQUEE!!! Do tell me if my chapter is good this time! Ayumu's stupid act will definitely spin out of control a couple more times, that's for sure! Mwahahaha this means you must update as well! (How you doin', by the way?) Luvs yous, Sici-chan!

Little Minamino: Thank ya much for the review! Ironic how I post the next chapter on the exact same day that you so graciously give me a review! Now you have joined the list of my shout-outs! Thanks for the compliments!

Preview: Hiyono concocts a devious plan and Ayumu seems to get involved in emotional, mental, social, and physical messes wherever he goes! What happens when the work for the fair begins and both Hiyono and Ayumu find themselves much more involved than they had originally planned?

Til' next time, Tootles everybody!


	6. The Mishaps

**Sorry it's been so long everybody! School and such and such! I'm finally done Chapter Six! Whoohoo! C'mon, guys, review, even 'I like your story' or 'your story stinks' I don't care! I wanna try to get 50 before next chapter! Reviews do so urge me on! I tend to update quicker.**

"Now that you so slinkily got me into this..." Ayumu glared at his innocent-looking reporter friend, who inquired, "'Slinkily', Narumi-san?"

Ayumu restrained a growl and continued, "Now that you so deviously got me into this, what is it about?"

Flynn, still standing next to the table, piped in, "It's quite simple, mate. Ya compete with a number of otha cooks on that stage right there, they're gonna bring grills up there and everythin', and there's a set time limit in which ya gotta make yer best Texan dish. When the time's up, the judges taste-test the foods and decide on a winner."

Hiyono bounced up and down a couple times, exclaiming, "And Flynn said I could be one of the judges!"

Oh yeah. It all made sense now. Her motive was perfectly clear, but that didn't stop her from saying it out loud, "So that way I get to taste everyone else's food as well as your delicious cooking, Narumi-san!"

Once again, Hiyono's stomach ruled. He watched her spitefully as she clearly daydreamed of any type of food that ran through her mind. He sighed heavily and muttered, "Okay, now what am I supposed to help with?"

"I'm not doing this, you stupid girl." the young Narumi glared at her as she adjusted his cotton candy stand hat.

She simply grinned and stood on her tiptoes to put the apron over his head, "It's easy, Narumi-san! Plus, judging by how you cook, you could make cotton candy taste like...well..." she drifted off into daydream with dreamy sparkling eyes, "like a wonderful mouthful of sweet, tasty clouds floating on your tongue! And just think! Just think of the adorable young couples buying bags of cotton candy and sharing them, ripping off pieces and putting it into each other's mouths!"

Ayumu raised his eyebrow at her, signaling that she had said a little more than he wanted to hear. She stopped and thought on her words for a moment, "Okay, that IS really weird."

With that, she once again continued her daydream, "And the night ends with a soft, sweet, sugary kiss, completely innocent and full of heartfelt love..."

Hiyono gave a dreamy sigh and placed herself behind Ayumu as he rolled his eyes. She grabbed the tie-strings of his apron and tied them tightly around his waist, at one point initiating a breathless gasp from her companion when she squeezed the breath out of him.

She then turned him around to face her and smiled, "C'mon, Narumi-san, it's only half an hour..."

His grumpy expression remained, "Yeah, then what?"

Hiyono glanced at her fingers, "Well, then you help the guys put up a couple tents, set up tables, help with some other booths, help with the small stage past the rides, and help with unloading the animals out of the trailers and into their pens...Oh! And my favorite...make the meringue pies for the pie throwing and the fruit pies for the eating contests!"

Ayumu withheld a groan and looked at her with a scrutinizing expression. Hiyono frowned, which slowly turned into a pout, "Narumi-san..."

His glare continued, unwavering in the face of her puppy eyes. Finally she leaned closer so she could stand on her tiptoes and whisper in his ear. He slightly pulled back, having no clue what she was planning.

She smiled to herself and whispered, "Thank you for taking me back to my room last night, Narumi-san."

He froze in his place and watched her as she backed away and gave him one last smile before scampering off to help with something or other.

He gave a sigh and tried to ignore the smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. With a roll of his eyes he accepted his role selling sugary fluffiness to hungry staff members.

At one point, a grinning boy, with a giggling girl, approached and asked for two bags of cotton candy. The girl tugged on his arm, "Let's get one and share it!"

The boy's grin turned to a smirk, "Anything for you, baby, what color?"

The girl jumped up and down ecstatically, "Oh! I want the blue!"

As the boy handed Ayumu the money, Ayumu grabbed a blue bag of cotton candy, slightly roughly, and handed it to the boy. Ayumu glared as the boy opened the cotton candy and shared it with his girlfriend, proceeding every now and then to take a piece and place it in her mouth, and vice versa.

Young Narumi knew that something like this was probably common occurrence, but it still disgusted him. Then he began to wonder which part actually disgusted him. Was it the action itself? Or did he despise the couples who could so freely express their feelings to each other?

His mind laughed. These kids were no different. In about a couple weeks or so they'd probably break up and either leave each other to pick up the pieces or more than likely, move on to the next fish in the sea.

He brushed the thought off and continued to focus on the task at hand.

After somehow making it through a half an hour of selling cotton candy, he abandoned the cotton candy-selling entourage and found himself being recruited for setting up tents. He couldn't remember ever needing to set up a tent, and, though he would never admit it, he had no idea whatsoever how it worked. At first, he stood for a while, observing the other young muscular staff hoist part of the tent into its place. He continued to observe until a tall, thin scruffy-looking stablehand handed him a rope and asked him to pull on it on the count of three.

Ayumu resisted an irritated sigh and tugged on the rope as he heard the number three. He knew that he wasn't fit for this. Mental problems that involved life and death situations, yep, he could do those. Working with a bunch of countrymen to put up a tent and sell cotton candy to cuddling couples and whatever else they had in store for him, those he couldn't do so well. Actually, the reality was, he could do them well, he could do nearly everything he tried well, the issue was that he didn't see it that way.

He found himself back in reality tying the rope of the tent to the stake in the ground. As soon as they had finished, everyone began to disperse. One of them gave Ayumu a friendly and thankful pat on the back. Though, of course, Ayumu wasn't exactly in the mood for it.

Next thing he knew, he was on one side of a long table, helping to carry it under another tent. Once he had set it down, he resumed the act of moving tables all around the fairgrounds.

As he let the last table down in its place, a loud, obnoxious giggle from behind him prompted him to turn around. His highly annoyed glare said it all as a young cowboy tickled his bubbling girlfriend. He gave a heavy sigh and shook it off, trying to keep his mind on his work. It made him nauseous that he was actually starting to get used to this work, even though the muscles in his arm were already sore.

To make matters worse, once he had finally gotten used to the job, he was stuck set up amplifiers and speakers at the stage. Truth be told, he could do this job with nearly no problem whatsoever, but he felt like an incomplete puzzle, doing all this alone. He felt like he was missing an arm. His missing arm was always the one that backed him up, the one that handled most of the technological stuff. Now that it(she) wasn't there, he felt like he was reverting back to the person he was before she began following him around all the time.

It was so strange how she always followed, yet he never objected. He never objected to her being one of his arms. He had grown accustomed to her, even attach-No. He couldn't think about stupid stuff like that right now. If he had to run around like a crazy loon plugging all the wires and moving speakers and setting up amplifiers and everything else to deal with this stupid stage, he would do so without interruptions, even from the voice in his head.

---

Hiyono sighed. She knew that Narumi-san didn't like this whole thing one bit. She wished that somehow she could help him. It just felt so natural, being by his side all the time. It felt a bit strange not seeing him. As they were walking, she tried to listen to what Flynn and Jack had to say, but she really didn't feel like paying attention at the moment.

Hiyono fiddled with the ends of her caramel braids for a few minutes, thinking of where Ayumu could be at that very moment. She sighed again. Apparently, Destrier, walking beside her, noticed this time. He looked at her with his big blue eyes and gave a small grin, "Ya miss Narumi, don'tcha, Hiyono?"

She tore her copper eyes away from him, trying to hide the fact that what he said was true. He turned to stare at where he was going, "I think he's very protective of you. Hiyono, you're his support, aren't you?"

The young reporter smiled at the brown-haired stablehand, "Don't worry about it, Narumi-san knows what he's doing, even when I'm not around."

As she closed her eyes to find what she really felt. Honestly, she wished that she didn't feel like Narumi-san was trying to do all this stuff on his own. She couldn't help feeling worried about if something happened to him and she wasn't there. Maybe, though, maybe SHE the one who can't stand up without HIM.

She wanted to be with him. She wanted to snatch his lunch, she wanted to be able to punch him with her hand puppets, she wanted to follow him around all the time, she wanted to be his shoulder to lean on, she wanted to be there to help him and inform him whenever he needed it. Most of all, though, she wanted him to need her, to want her, to hold her like he had the previous night, and carry her when she could no longer stand on her own.

She shook her head vigorously to erase her thoughts from her mind, her braids flipping at the sudden movement.

As if by more than coincidence, Flynn turned around, the bright white smile on his face, "Hey, Hiyono-chan, ya wanna go check on Narumi? I dunno how much I trust the bloke alone with all that work...especially with the animals."

---

Ayumu Narumi made his final decision. He hated any living thing that could make him lose his control, physically, or emotionally. In this case, the perpetrator was as big as a large dog and had a curly pink tail. The detective couldn't figure out what hit him until he had fallen backwards into the slop feed trough.

To make it worse, as he tried to claw his way out of the feed trough and onto his feet, he realized that his backside would not budge from the almost Hunter-like trap of the feed trough. For minutes he stretched and pulled and rocked the trough, but it didn't let him go. He felt like he had fallen into a small bucket that wouldn't come off, only this bucket was much bigger and much heavier.

After what seemed like forever, he slumped over, trying to accept defeat. No, he would NOT be beaten by a pig's slop bucket! He HAD to escape!

Suddenly he heard a reserved snort, one that apparently wasn't supposed to be heard. Following the snort was a very sloppily-hidden giggle and another small snort. Ayumu looked up to find his pretty little Watson staring down at him from the doorway of the pig stall, her hands over her mouth.

She couldn't take it anymore. It would not be caged! She burst out in a fit of INSANELY amused giggles.

He glowered at her with the Narumi stare of doom. Hiyono nearly doubled over from laughing so hard. Her laughs became breathless, emitting high-pitched screech noises. She finally extended a hand to help her friend out of his...predicament.

He reluctantly took her grasp, still glaring at her. Using all of her strength, she pulled back on her friend's hand. After a few moments, the feed trough released him and they both tumbled backwards into the pig's wet mud.

Hiyono was still laughing. Ayumu was still scowling at her. Finally, she calmed herself...slightly. But something else initiated another restrained fit of giggles, "Narumi-san, you have mud on your face."

Now it felt like Narumi's turn to seek revenge. He tried to maintain the scowl and keep from breaking into an evil smirk. He reached over, grabbing a wad of mud, and hurled it at her. Hiyono's giggles halted abruptly as she felt the slimy liquid run down her neck. She turned to face him, raising a suspicious and malicious eyebrow at him. She then gathered a huge bundle of mud and slapped it in his hair. She proceeded to lather his hair with mud as if it was shampoo.

In return, he managed to catch her braids with mud-wads and gunk her entire hair with the brown goo. Hiyono stared in his eyes for a few moments with the strangest expression on her face before reaching her hand behind his head and playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. He stared at her, a bit confused. Hiyono bit her lip and used her hand to yank Ayumu's head down and thwap him face first into the mud puddle.

She let out a 'meep!' when she heard his growl from the mud. Eventually, he rose his face from the mud and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. Right when Hiyono began to relax, in one swift movement, Ayumu leaned over to smear the gunk all over her face. He wiped it mercilessly on her cheeks, nose and forehead; though he was more gentle around her eyes and lips, he tried to leave no flesh unscathed. As he wiped it over her face, that stupid voice of his began to nudge him again. He had the strangest feeling. Thankfully, it ended when she gave a slight squeal, "Okay! Narumi-san! I give up!"

As he backed away, he heard a slight chuckle from behind. He jumped, seeing Flynn, a big grin on his face, leaning on the gate to the pig-stall.

"What're ya doin', Hiyono-chan?"

Hiyono smiled, "We're having a mud war! You wanna join us?"

Flynn scanned the stall and bit his lip, obviously trying to hid his own chuckle. He finally managed to speak, "I'd love ta, Hiyono-chan, but...number one: We gotta get back ta work. And number two: That ain't mud."

If that hadn't been bad enough, now Ayumu had to go make pies. With "mud" all over him, he swore it took at least an hour to get it out of his face, hair, and hands. He didn't even want to think about what that stuff had done to his clothes, he had just given up and worn a chef's uniform he found around the area he was to make the pies.

Much to his dismay, his trouble-making honey-haired imp made sure she wasn't far away from where he was cooking, still donned in her array of "mud". He stared at her with a rather vexed expression on his face. How she could just sit there, leaning on the table, with that goofy grin on her face, napkin tied around her neck, a fork in one hand, and a knife in the other. That was completely beyond him. She didn't even care that she was covered in...well, nasty stuff. What had perturbed him even more was the fact that she had pointed out the pig slop still on the rear end of his jeans from the feed trough as they were walking towards the place where he was to cook.

Even with Hiyono sitting there, it seemed much like a factory operation. He made the same kind of pies with the same ingredients the same way every time. Finally, as he was putting the filling into the last pie, he heard her whisper, oddly serious, "Narumi-san?"

"Hn." he groaned, without turning around to face her.

"Sorry." her now meek voice apologized.

"For what, stupid girl?" He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was sitting, a bit dejected, staring into her lap. She shook her head, "Nevermind."

With that, she got up and left. Part of Ayumu wanted so badly to go after her, but that was that little voice again. The one that he refused to listen to anymore.

After he topped the final pie with whipped cream and placed it with the other pies for the other staff to handle later, he began searching for Hiyono. That girl could get into serious trouble if she was left alone for too long.

He had to dodge a few boards, tables, and displays as people rushed to set up different parts of the fair. He finally found Hiyono, along with Flynn, Jack, and Dest, talking with a very official-looking lady with glasses down the bridge of her nose and her brown hair up in a bun. As Jack motioned Hiyono to follow him, Ayumu gave an internal exasperated sigh.

When the official-looking lady spotted Ayumu, he started towards her, recognizing her as the lady at the table where the cooking contest sheet was. He spoke, a slight hint of impatience and annoyance in his voice, "What's the deal with this cooking competition?"

She cleared her throat, pushed her glasses up on her nose, and began to speak in her feminine, slightly nasal voice, "It's called the 'Kiss the Cook' competition. As implied, judges will taste the contestant's foods, and the winner of the competition gets a kiss from the beautiful young girl nominated for this year and this year's trophy. The girl for this year will arrive later tomorrow if you want to meet her."

Ayumu didn't even let the lady finish her sentence. He HAD to find Hiyono...NOW. There was NO way he was going to do this, no matter what.

He stormed around the entire fairgrounds trying to find her.

Finally, he spotted Flynn, Jack, and Dest hanging around a popcorn stand...without Hiyono. He made his way to them, clearly aggravated. As he arrived a couple feet away from them, all he said was, "Where's Hiyono?"

It sounded more like a demand than a statement, but the stablehands just shrugged and pointed to a supply trailer near the outside of the fairgrounds.

---

Hiyono nearly jumped out of her skin when the trailer door slammed open. She could see the silhouette of a very disturbed-looking Narumi-san in the doorway. She tilted her head, almost afraid to ask, "Narumi-san?"

Without any prelude whatsoever, he walked quickly and heavily over to her and stood in front of her for a few minutes, staring down at her. With no warning, he grabbed her wrists and nearly slammed her up against the wall of the trailer, holding her wrists to the wall. She could barely let out a gasp and could only wait for him to start speaking. It was a minute or two, but eventually he spoke.

"Why do I let you get me into these things?! What's your problem? How could you do this? Why do you constantly get me into these messes? Why do I let you hang around all the time?"

As he spouted off these questions, Hiyono stared at him with the most sympathetic loving eyes that she could muster. She bent under his grasp like clay. Finally he finished with the words that should have hurt her the most, "Why can't you just disappear?!"

He stared at her and her eyes for the longest time. It made him want to scream. It made him want to cry. It made him want to curl under a rock and hide. Those eyes that constantly held compassion and love still stared back at him unfailingly. That's when she spoke, "You are afraid, aren't you, Narumi-san?"

His grip on her wrists loosened but did not fall. He found himself closer to her than he was before. He closed his eyes and sighed noiselessly, but did not answer her. She slowly leaned forward to stare at his eyes as he opened them, "Don't worry, Narumi-san. I'll be here all the way."

He sighed again, out loud this time, "Hiyono." he breathed. He closed his eyes again. She leaned forward. She could feel his breath on her face, and he could feel hers. She wondered...maybe being this close...

"Hiyono-chan!"

Flynn's excited exclamation made both teens start. As Flynn stared at the both of them, he cleared his throat and smiled innocently, "I'll...uh...I'll just leave ya two alone..."

With that, he ducked away from the trailer. Ayumu quickly backed away from her. He did not look at her, all he did was turn his back and leave the trailer.

Hiyono sighed. She jolted the thoughts from her mind, trying to keep her cheeks from growing red, and decided to go look for Flynn to see what he wanted. Upon finding him, he tactfully kept his cool, and his ever-growing smirk, and told her the news.

"Heya, Hiyono-chan. I just wanted to tell ya, the young girl or whatnot for the Kiss the Cook competition...well, she kinda caught the measles or something and couldn't come. So, the board nominated you as the young lady! Hiyono-chan?"

Hiyono had spaced out. If she was this girl for the competition...then that would mean...Ayumu...if he won...he would have to...or she would have to...

And even worse...she might not get to taste-test any of the food!

**MWAHAHAHHAHAAAA! What do you guys think? Wow, Ayumu seemed out of character here, but whoa...yeah, he's under a whole lotta pressure...hahaha, little does he know...Did ya like the whole pig slop/pen thing? It was my comedy brain's idea...and partly my romantic brain's idea...Oh yeah! Guess what, guys! Only Four more chapters! To make up for my tardiness...I'll give you a little secret information. Four chapters...right? Well, yes, and no. The biggest secret...well, I can't tell you yet, you'll just have to wait until Chapter 7 to find out what it is...**

**UNLESS! Unless the review count doesn't reach 50 by the beginning of next month. Then I will just wait to give you a hint until the end of Chapter 10(approximately the final chapter)...heheheheee I'm so evil...anywho! HAHA!!! I mean, I don't really care if I get reviews or not, but every review sorta urges me to move faster and update quicker and it's kinda sad that over the course of 6 chapters and over 1000 hits with only 40 reviews to urge me on. So if you want me to update, reviewing does help, hehee. And I kinda feel like being a bit evil at the moment, mwahaha. Like, -sings- I know something you don't know! I know something you don't know! heheheheee, yeah. Anywho. heheheheee I'm so evil...anywho! HAHA!!! LOVE YOU GUYS! **

**Little Minamino- **Hehehee, thank you very muchness for the reviews and the appreciation! I quite love the support! yesyes!

**Juuroku-sama- **Ayaa...yesh, poor Ayu-kun! Hmm, yes, Dest is pretty insightful, sometimes almost to the point of annoyance; no matter what you try to hide, he can read you like a book! But most of the time he's nice and quiet and polite about it...but at the same time, he's very blunt! I'll be sure to update as soon as humanly possible!

**Sony89- **Mwahahaa, do not fear. The fic isn't called 'Kiss the Cook' for nothing! hehehee, I shall be sure to try to update, yesyes! Thanks for waiting for me at least semi-patiently!

**BeAuTifuL SmiLe- **MWAHAHAHA! Yes, I updated! And yes, you've already read this chapter before I got the shout-out up! . It's increasingly difficult keeping Ayumu in character...especially under such "ridiculous" situations and much stress! Poor guy! He's coming unraveled so quickly in more ways than one!

**Jewely2951- **I know ye has already read this chapter before the shout-out got out, but I'm gonna shout out to ya anyway! Mwhahaa, I see ye has read into the 'mud' before Flynn pointed it out! -giggle- Yep, Ayumu kinda came a bit unraveled and let his guard down there at the end. Stick around for Chapter 7! I think you'll get at least some amusement out of one aspect of it! -grin-

**AsianGlitter- ** Indeed, Hiyono has much in store for Ayumu, even if she doesn't know what it is yet. However, Ayumu has a few things in store for Hiyono; and Life and the stablehands have a few things in store for them both! -evil grin- Keep readin'! It all begins next chapter...or...that's when you find out about it...

**Sicilian Maiden- **Sici-chan!!! You oki? Haven't heard from you in forever! Lookie lookie! Chapter 6 finally! Don't fall off your seat! Especially next chapter! -malicious grin- Haha, it may be a bit before Ayumu gets his act together, life has kicked him in the pig's manure and laughed, so he's a bit messed up for the moment. Mwahahahaa you MUST read next chapter...It begins...Love ya!!

**SasuNaruxAyumHino(Cattie)- **Yay! Here be an update for you! Thank you so much for the review! Stick around for the rest of the story! Especially next chapter!

**And to everybody who reads, and reviews or not, I love you guys! God bless you! Hang around for next chapter as well as the end!**

**Alrighty, time for preview real quick! -evil evil grin- And Chapter 7 is where it REALLY starts getting good.**

**PREVIEW: After Ayumu finds out about Hiyono's little 'secret' about the competition, he makes all effort to avoid her and the competition, and even debates on drastic decisions. However, Hiyono stumbles upon a 'wee bit' of secret information that COMPLETELY changes everything.**


	7. The Unexpected

**Hello all! Ahhhh finally, Chapter 7!...**

**...Well, don't just sit there, read on already!**

"Hiyono-chan? Are ya okay?"

Hiyono glanced up at her blond cowboy friend and his very worried-looking crew. Hiyono gave a weak nod and stared back into her lap. After a moment of silence, Flynn continued.

"You haven't touched your food..."

If Ayumu had been at the table, he definitely would've known something was wrong. And he would probably stop at nothing to find out what it was so he wouldn't be plagued by her long face. Hiyono really didn't feel like talking. Flynn seemed to understand, but of course, Destrier piped in and hit the nail on the head, once again, "Hiyono? Does the Kiss the Cook competition bother you?"

Hiyono chose not to answer, but Jack furthered the matter with comforting words, though none that she could see would solve her problem, "Ya don't hafta be in the competition if you don't want to."

The young reporter sighed. She knew they were trying to help, but she just didn't feel up to it. She slowly rose from the table, speaking at almost a whisper, "Gomen...I'm sorry, could I please be excused?"

She was given permission and placed her nearly-full plate by the sink before she took off her boots, well, the boots that Jack and Flynn gave her, and hurried upstairs.

Man, she really needed a shower. She still had pig...stuff...all over her and in her hair. She was surprised that they actually let her sit at the table instead of eating with the dogs in the backyard. As she walked towards her door, she stopped in front of the closed door belonging to her brunette detective's. It wasn't difficult at all to figure out that he had probably either taken a shower and gone to bed or just gone to bed and skipped the shower.

She hoped that he wasn't still mad at her, if that's what it was at all. She didn't want that. With another un-Hiyono-like sigh, she turned around and walked back into her room, intending to prepare for her shower.

---

Ayumu Narumi groaned. How did he get himself into this? He was beginning to think that he should have never stolen his sister-in-law's tickets and just stayed home or gone into hiding or something. He wondered which would have been more of a mess. Following his little run-in with his reporter in the trailer, Narumi had gone back to work. What exactly he worked on, he wasn't entirely sure. His mind was so caught up in everything he couldn't exactly remember the actions he performed effortlessly even though he wasn't thinking about it. After they had all piled back in the pick-up truck, after Jack had placed towels on the seats for Ayumu and Hiyono so they wouldn't get his truck dirty, they had driven back to the ranch at the end of a long day's work.

Now he was back at the ranch-house, sprawled on the bed because of his physical and emotional exhaustion. He really had to get himself up and get a shower. Laying on the bed with dung caked all over him made him feel WAY too dirty and disgusting. There was no way he would be able to sleep like this.

Sleep...it seemed like such a prized gem to him now. He was so used to taking periodical naps on the school roof back at home, but here, of course, no sleep-on-able roofs, and no time to sleep on them.

To acquire this prized sleep, he knew that he had to make himself get up off the bed and get a shower, even though he was sore and disgusting and too exhausted to move.

What had Hiyono done to him today? What happened? How had his anger and frustration towards her melted into...whatever it was?

Finally, his confusion roused him enough to help him sit up on the bed, but held him still staring into his lap. He knew that Hiyono would never do this on purpose unless she knew what she was doing. After everything they've been through, he should be able to trust her with his life by now. Through everything, she had surely proved herself worthy of more than just being his Watson by now.

Ayumu gave a mental sigh. He really should give her a little credit. She wouldn't do something like this to him on purpose without having a proper plan. Slowly, he finally stood and trudged over to the door, turning the doorknob and opening said door a few inches to peek out into the hallway. At the sign of no activity, Ayumu opened the door wider and stepped out into the hall, grabbing a pair of old clothes from his suitcase on the way out.

---

Hiyono gave a refreshed sigh as she wrapped the towel around her head and secured it. Glancing in the mirror once, she turned and opened the door to the bathroom and nearly squealed in surprise. Her best friend, standing right in front of her, apparently waiting to use the bathroom, silently stared down at her. She moved over to let him inside, preparing to leave as he walked past.

Ayumu startled her once again by finally speaking with his usual casually annoyed tone, "You fogged up the mirror, stupid girl."

She turned to face him as she stood in the doorway, an indignant pout on her face. He knew that if she had her puppets on her then she would take them out and beat him with them.

After a moment, he continued, picking up a washcloth and wiping the steam from the mirror, "You know that the condensation from the steam that comes from the high temperature of the water not only creates the steam on the mirror, but also condensates as liquid on the walls. Which, in turn, will be more likely to grow mold."

Yep, same old Narumi-san. Hiyono smiled. Her smile broke when Ayumu turned abruptly to face her. He watched her for a moment, taking in the sight of her in her pajamas and a towel around her head with an unreadable expression on his face.

Hiyono squirmed, a bit anxious in the silence before he finally spoke, "You look like something out of a lame monster movie."

The caramel-haired journalist's face erupted in a pout once more, and, though she was devoid of her puppets, her fist flung at him with a ridiculously loud, "Hiyono punch!"

Ayumu, well prepared for the onslaught, caught her fist and held it tightly, tugging her towards him until she was close enough for him to hiss a low question, "Now, why did you get me involved in this absurd competition?"

His companion cringed, her eyes finding the floor as she was suddenly reminded of the little tidbit of information that her detective still didn't know. Giving a heavy sigh, her amber eyes found his chocolate ones as she softly spoke the truth, "Because I knew Narumi-san would win, and I wanted to show everyone how great his food was."

His hand still curled around her now-relaxed fist, Ayumu's cold stare softened the tiniest bit, but still held, "But why this?"

Hiyono bit her lip. She wondered if she should actually tell him right now, worried about his reaction. She sighed heavily, gathering up her courage, "Um, Narumi-san?"

He blinked, still waiting for her to answer, his heavy stare weighing her down. She shut her eyes tightly and opened her mouth, "I uh...Narumi-san, I'm...um...I'm sorry, I guess. Yeah...Gomen, Narumi-san."

Ayumu wasn't convinced one bit. He knew she was holding something back, but before he could say anything, she slowly pulled away from his grasp. He diverted his gaze as she backed out of the bathroom and took hold of the doorknob, about to shut the door.

She finally cleared her throat and gave an excuse, "I'm sorry for interrupting, Narumi-san, you really should finish taking a shower before you get too tired."

As she closed the door behind her, Ayumu let out a sigh. It bugged him wondering what she was holding back, but he wouldn't press it for now. He knew that, because of Hiyono's personality, she would end up telling him eventually...maybe.

Hiyono tossed and turned on her bed, unable to fall asleep, her wet hair unbound and strewn across the pillow. She knew she was in a real predicament. If Ayumu ended up losing the competition, she would be forced to kiss someone she didn't love. If he won the competition, she was afraid that, because of it, he would be angry with her, if not leave her completely. She knew that this was probably an irrational fear, but she couldn't help it. Ayumu Narumi was her best friend in the world, and for her, more than that. She just didn't want to lose him.

Yuizaki Hiyono closed her eyes tightly, hoping for good dreams to come quickly.

---

At breakfast, the staff and stablehands conversed as usual, and Ayumu actually ate his food, but Hiyono didn't touch it, delving deep through her thoughts. Ayumu watched her, having full knowledge that something was wrong.

When she excused herself the same way she had done the previous night and walked out the door to go outside, Ayumu waited a couple moments before he left his half-eaten food without a word to follow her.

However, Flynn's voice stopped him, "Ya don't know what's buggin' Hiyono-chan yet, mate?"

Ayumu remained silent in response. The blond cowboy opened his mouth and began to explain, despite Jack's warning glare, "She got picked as the replacement for the girl who was gonna be the center of the Kiss the Cook competition, that's all." Flynn chuckled and returned to eating his fried eggs. Jack elbowed Flynn, earning a slight painful whine from the latter.

The young detective took a few moments to digest this. Hiyono...his Hiyono...was going to be in this weird competition and give a kiss to the winner. This was all way too weird. Wait a second, HIS Hiyono, HIS Watson, HIS sidekick, HIS support, was going to kiss whoever won that stupid competition.

There was only three things he could do. He could take either himself or Hiyono out of the competition, he could take off like tomorrow would come too soon, or...he could make sure...no...wait...yes...he could make sure that he won. Ack! What a stupid idea. Wait, maybe he could make sure he won THEN take off, with her in tow. No, another stupid idea. He gave an internal growl and headed outside, slamming the door behind him, barely hearing the angry shout from within, "Hey, I jus' fixed that ther' door!" from the old geezer Blake.

The brunette swiveled his head to find Hiy-wait. Why was he so interested in finding her? What had happened to him? Since when had she become more than his support to lean on when he needed it?

Maybe that support for leaning grew of its own accord. Ugh! What was he thinking? He had to get this mumbo jumbo out of his head. Stupid hormones.

Even so, he still glanced around to find Hiyono leaning on the fence of the nearest paddock. This time, he didn't approach her, he merely leaned against the ranch-house and watched, though he wasn't sure why.

It was barely a few minutes before Flynn, Destrier, and Jack exited the ranch-house and proceeded towards the pick-up truck, ready for another day of getting ready for the festival. Flynn called Hiyono, who scampered over and climbed into the truck, as Ayumu solemnly followed. He could probably stay at the ranch, but he knew that he would get bored and spend his time trying to find a place to take a nap, and plus, someone had to make sure Hiyono stayed out of trouble.

To make sure she stayed out of trouble...Hmm.

---

"Oh wow! I've never seen one of these in person! Narumi-san! Come look!" Hiyono jumped up and down, standing at a newly-set-up stand. Ayumu exhaled silently and meandered over to see her drooling over a rack of some type of food wrapped in a bent, flat, toasted bread-substance with ground meat, cheese, and vegetables in the middle. Ayumu raised an eyebrow, "Tacos?"

Hiyono's bright face grinned at him, her eyes pleading for him to buy her a taco. Ayumu rolled his brown eyes and dug into his jeans' pocket. Hiyono's squeal was cut short when he extracted nothing from his pocket and stared at her with a look as if she should know the reason. She stared at him blankly for a moment, then sighed in defeat, "Oh yeah, you don't have much money, do you, Narumi-san?"

Ayumu shoved his hands in his pockets and expounded on her statement, "We should save the little we do have for another time when we really need it."

Hiyono pouted, though understood, "You're right. C'mon, Narumi-san, let's go check out how they're doing with the food court!"

The rambunctious teen dragged her companion by the arm towards the section of the festival dedicated solely to food.

---

Ayumu could swear that, as soon as he finished cooking a pie, Hiyono was eating it. With slightly-wrinkled eyebrows, Ayumu told her, "You should really save your appetite for the pie-eating contest before you either pass out from eating or I run out of pies."

Hiyono grinned as best she could, chunks of pie stored in her cheeks like a chipmunk. Ayumu fought a small smile and turned his head to watch the oven that his pies were cooking in. After a few moments of complete silence save for the sound of Hiyono eating, Ayumu spoke plainly, as more of a statement than a question, "So when were you going to tell me about your REAL place in the competition?"

He could hear Hiyono gulp down her pie and nearly choke on it before she regained herself. He brushed his russet-colored bangs out of his eyes and stared at his friend out of the corner of his glare. This question remained unanswered, even through the minutes and eventually hours of silence that followed.

Neither left each other, but their minds wandered through the silence, until Hiyono spotted another stand that caught her interest.

"Narumi-san, look! Aren't they pretty?"

Both walked up to the stand and observed the irises. As Hiyono took a closer look, she sighed, "They're so expensive..."

With that, she forced herself to walk away, while Ayumu stared at the irises a little while longer. The happiness of those who believe. Maybe that was why Hiyono was so happy all the time. But, if that was the case, then why was she acting so strange lately? Was it because of the competition?

"Beautiful flowers, huh?" a lady in her twenties walked up behind the counter and smiled at him. She glanced at Hiyono, who was walking aimlessly in a circle a few yards away, before fixing her gaze back on Ayumu, "Here, give it to the young lady."

The woman giggled and handed Ayumu one of the irises, nodding to Hiyono. Ayumu sauntered away without a word. When he reached Hiyono, she poked his shoulder and pointed over towards the stage, "Look, Narumi-san! They have the stage all set up already!"

Ayumu watched the stage disdainfully, knowing fully that he had help set up that blasted stage. When a twang of a guitar rang from the stage, Hiyono grinned and jogged down towards the stage to hear more. Ayumu stood there, the iris in his hand behind his back, watching Hiyono for a while before slowly making his way down there with full intent to drag her out.

Apparently, the bands were already practicing. When a band began to play after checking the sound system, Hiyono found herself swaying gently to the music. Before she knew it, she was twirling and spinning and moving, dancing with herself as if she was dancing the waltz with some invisible partner.

Ayumu watched her, trying not to smirk at her antics as she almost fell on the grass a few times from tripping over her own feet. The temptation to smile faded as his thoughts gathered. Hiyono was happy here. She fit in here and everyone loved her. Just watching her and watching anonymous people come up and say 'Hi!' to her was evidence of that. This was a remote place, out of danger, where Hiyono would probably be safe. Kanone would never think to look here.

A Narumi didn't belong here. It definitely didn't click at all. He needed to be home, in his own nice warm bed, go to school like normal people (he couldn't believe he just thought that), and most of all, the mystery of the Blade Children was HIS problem and HIS problem alone. He didn't want to risk his best friend's life by getting further into it. He had to go back. He would take both passports, so she wouldn't be in danger again and she wouldn't be able to come back.

Ayumu went through the rest of the day in silence, simply acting like he was paying attention. Mostly, he was debating on what he was going to do. He knew that whatever he decided, his plans would be formulated in the course of a couple minutes at the last possible second, knowing him.

---

When everyone arrived back home, the whole house enjoyed a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. Hiyono was extravagant over the food, but something was bothering her. Ayumu had barely even made fun of her today. He had barely said anything at all, usually he said something to annoy her, but he didn't even do that. Maybe the whole competition thing WAS really bothering him. Hiyono stopped stuffing her face for a moment, staring down at her plate, her expression morphing into a frown.

Ayumu was the last thing she wanted to lose. Now he had taken his plate up to his room, something that Hiyono wasn't actually surprised at. She knew that he probably would rather eat alone than with a bunch of ranchers and cowpokes. He was so used to eating with two other people at the most, so the huge amount of people here probably annoyed him.

A slight smile played on Hiyono's lips. He was undoubtedly at least a little annoyed at the fact that he wasn't able to play the piano or take a nap on the roof. Everyone, including Hiyono, continued to eat, drowning out any other noise with the buzzing of conversations.

After dinner, Hiyono was exceedingly bored. While the rest of the crew cleaned up, Hiyono snuck upstairs, planning on going up to bug Ayumu. She tiptoed over to his door, watching it for any sign of movement before bursting into the room, "Narumi-san!"

The empty room didn't answer, and neither did his absent suitcases. The reporter playfully scoured the room, under the bed, in the closets, behind the dressers, looking for any sign of Narumi-san or his belongings. A single light on the night-piecetable was left on, a piece of paper beside it. Curious, Yuizaki swiftly picked it up. She began to read out loud, trying to see if a hidden Narumi-san would respond to her reading. Soon, however, her reading became softer and softer until she read silently.

"I'm sorry...I've gone to finish all the Blade Children junk. You can't...be involved, it's...too dangerous..."

_I'm sorry Hiyono..._

He was really gone. He had gone and left her here all alone. Sure, the people here were nice, but she wouldn't be able to handle it for a day knowing that Ayumu wasn't going to come for her. He always came for her...

Defeated, Hiyono began to make her way downstairs, stopping mid-step when she heard a heavily-accented voice talking to someone, a very muffled voice that she could barely hear.

"No, I don't know what yer' talkin' about. Look, I told ya before..."

Hiyono peeked around the corner, seeing Flynn talking to someone on the phone, lacking his usual optimism.

"Look, Eyes! I told ya before! No! Forget it! Yeah I know, fate, death, blood, blah, blah, blah."

Hiyono had to keep herself from gasping. Flynn-san knew Rutherford-san?

"How many times do I gotta tell ya, Eyes? I want nothin' to do with your paranoid little club of Knife People!"

He paused as Eyes said something, then responded, "Call me a Leaf-toed Alien fer all I care! I don' care if I'm one of yer Blade Children er not!"

After another pause, "Kanone Shpamone! Sorry, Eyes, we jus' don't wanna be a part of this anymore. We told you that a long time ago...Yeah, take care, leather-fer-brains, don't kill anybody."

Flynn then replaced the phone back on its hook and sighed without turning around, "Ya can come out now, Hiyono-chan. I guess this is the part where I explain myself, huh?"

---

**Okay, first of all, does Ayumu's note remind you guys of anything?? Oh yeah, and the taco scene was for El Taco who did so long for a taco scene...hehee, hope it suffices for now!**

**MWAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAAA!!! Who saw that one coming?!!! Lemme see a show of hands!!! ...or...a show of reviews! That works! Ah, speaking of reviews, sadly, we came so close, but 4 short of 50, so no preview of that right now...BUT! Because we were so close, I will throw in two previews of my next short-term fanfictions that will take up most of my December, for they are all Christmasy! Fwi! So yes, the next Chapter of Kiss the Cook won't come until at least January, but look forward to these! The first one is a one-shot, or consisting of one part, and the second has twelve parts, hence the title.**

**----Black and White Christmas Lights----**

**Christmas is approaching once again and everyone is filled with Christmas cheer, that is, except Ayumu Narumi. With her ever-ecstatic powers, Ayumu's high-strung sidekick will stop at nothing to awaken her friend's Christmas spirit.**

**----The Twelve Days of Christmas----**

**Christmas is quickly approaching and Hiyono and the Blade Children have twelve days to come up with different plans to buy gifts, bug Ayumu out of his mind and get him into the spirit of Christmas, plan Christmas parties, and play matchmaker with a little help from the mistletoe; all while avoiding getting found and/or killed by the Hunters.**

**Alas, and who wants to see the preview for Chapter 8? Well, you'll have to wait until after the shout-outs, yes, which I will continue since no one has told me to stop.**

**Little Minamino**- Hmmm...NOW what do we think?? Alas, do not despair, my friend, I despise unhappy endings. Tootles! Look out for Chapter 8 and my Cheesy Christmas fics! Thankies for the long-term support! -must kick self into gear into writing fics as quickly as possible- God bless ya!

**Sony89**- Hehee, everyone knows that Ayumu couldn't stay mad at Hiyono forever...So what'd ya think? NOW the action begins...Thank you for your ever-loyal support and the 'WONDERFUL's!! -blush- 'Til next time! God bless you!

**Jewely2951**- HAHAHAHHAA...heheeee, you knew there was something up with Flynn, and you were close, yesyes. I bet you're sitting there right now pointing at the computer and saying, "HA! I was close! Oh yeah, I was close! I told ya so!" Heheee, thankies for the uber love! -returns uber love- Tootles! God bless you!

**BeAuTifuL SmiLe**- Update Delivery! Please don't fall over! It could cause head injury! I hope you like this chapter too! Tootles! Thankies for all your reviews! God bless you!

**Chandallance**- Hmm...twasn't mud...nopenope, twas pig poopy! And lots of it! Yes, Ayumu's on a quite a road alright. -laughs then hits self for cheesy puns- God bless you!

**Sicilian Maiden**- Ahhh, Sici-chan, MWAHAHHAAA! This means you have to update soon again, deary! Awww, heheee thankies for the 'fantabulous'! -Blush- Love ya and talk to ya soon! God bless you, Sici-chan! I'll be praying for you!

**El Taco**- Hahaa, yep! I put in the taco scene just for you! Aw, thankyou much! -Blush- I hope this chapter 'rocks' as much as the last ones did! Stick around for Chapter 8 and any other of my future Cheesy endeavors! God bless you and I shall try my best to keep up my Cheesy 'good work'! Tootles!

**What-you-looking-at**- Thank you much for your reading and support and encouragement! Be on look-out for next chapter and whatever other Cheesy stuff I got goin' on! Tootles and God bless you!

**ayane04**- Ah, yesh, Ayumu must be hesitant for now...O.o but will Hiyono be stuck in America ALONE to Kiss the Cook?? Aha! but don't fret! I shall try to update as soon as possible!

**anonymus**- Yesss, Ayumu is love! Thank you for the support and God bless you! However, I'm really really REALLY sorry, but I had to delete the review...I thought it was bugging my computer and it wouldn't let me update...And then the computer was just being a downright jerk.

**Finally...The Cheeseball speaks the Preview...**

**PREVIEW: When Hiyono comes to a dangerous conclusion, she must do all she can to stop Ayumu from leaving for her sake as well as his. On the way, however, Flynn finally spills some key information that he's been holding back. Lastly is the fact that there is only one more day before the festival and this whole mess has to be cleaned up before the day of the festival.**

**Psst. More reviews...faster updates and perhaps a bonus preview of -insert secret information here-. -hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge-**

**Nah, you guys don't have to if you don't want to. Honestly, I want to get this thing going and over with because I have way too many ideas to be still stuck finishing this one! Tootles! I love you guys and God bless you!! Until next time! I'll be praying for you all! -Cheeseball out-**


	8. The Alone

**Oh my goodness! You guys don't know how incredibly sorry I am! My life is a living nut-house right now! However! Mwahaha! I will still continue! The Cheeseball lives! Read on, my loves!**

Hiyono clamped her hands onto the window, gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes tightly, "Do you really think that Jack-san would be happy about you taking his truck like this?"

Flynn shrugged, a devious smile and slightly careless expression on his face, "I don' think he'd mind all too much."

Hiyono dug her nails into the seat, trying to find something to hang onto, "Don't you think you're going a little too fast?"

Flynn thought for a moment, then shook his head, "Nah."

He sighed and pressed on the breaks, slowing down just a bit, "For you, Hiyono-chan, I could. But if ya wanna catch Narumi at the airport, we gotta hurry."

Hiyono thought for a few moments, "How did Narumi-san get off the ranch in the first place? We have no cell phone service out here, so he couldn't call up anyone."

Flynn sighed, "Well, judging by how late we got out and the time he left, he could've probably walked ta the town and asked fer transportation there by now."

Hiyono diverted her eyes to her lap, twiddling with her thumbs until she rose her eyes to stare out the window. She watched the world go by in cold, monotone outlines of the moon's light and the shadows they created. Here she was, in the middle of the night, around two o'clock A.M. to be precise, in Jack's truck with Flynn, trying to get to the airport in time to catch Ayumu Narumi before he could catch the next plane back to Japan. Flynn had still explained nothing about the phone call to Eyes Rutherford. However, she could piece together a little bit from the conversation, but she still wanted to hear the whole story from the horseman's mouth.

"Flynn-san? What's going on?"

The blonde cowboy immediately knew what she was talking about. He stared at the road, his headlights on, contemplating how he should respond. Finally, he exhaled and began, "This ranch is a refuge. It's a refuge fer Blade Children and victims of the Hunters."

Hiyono's eyes widened, "So THAT'S why some of the stablehands are missing fingers! It wasn't because of the bull-riding, it was because of Hunter attacks!"

Flynn chuckled richly, "Some of 'em, Hiyono-chan. Some of 'em really did lose their fingers in bull-riding."

He cleared his throat and continued, "Anyway, there aren't many of us Blade Children, even at the ranch. I know they won' like that I'm tellin' you all this, but Jack, Dest, and I are the only ones I know about. If there are any more, then they've hidden it perty well."

Hiyono could barely soak up all the information. Finally she shook her head out of it and watched Flynn's eyes as he watched the refuge, "You said this was a refuge. Why a refuge, Flynn-san? What are you protecting yourselves from? The Hunters?"

The cowboy's eyes lowered for a moment, "One would think, Hiyono-chan. But we're really protecting ourselves from the lives of Blade Children. To us, we aren't Blade Children at all. We're just, human beings. And because we've made ourselves that way, the Hunters usually have a hard time trackin' us down. So nobody usually bothers us."

He laughed, "They probably wouldn't be able to find us if they tried. If they tried to use X-rays that is. We've been banged up so much that those Hunter blokes wouldn't be able to tell if we're missing a rib or an anklebone!"

Again he cleared his throat and continued, "About fifteen years ago, ol' Blake, who was barely younger than ya see the ol' geezer today, found a starving kid who had apparently wandered onto his property. The poor fool could barely walk. Blake took 'im in and nursed him back to health, but the ol' geezer immediately knew somethin' was wrong. The kid was terrified of everything, always mumblin' and babblin' like a crazed lunatic. His eyes were always huge like one a' those Bushbabies back home. Always lookin' around for somethin' kooky to jump out at him."

Finally, Hiyono pieced it together, mumbling, "Jack..."

Flynn nodded, "That's right." he affirmed in his heavily accented voice, "When Blake finally got the kid ta talk, he found out about the Blade Children project and the Hunters or whatever poppycock it is. He then resolved ta make a refuge fer those of us who wanna defy whatever they told us ta be and live like we was supposed to, like human beings."

All Hiyono could say was, "Wow..."

He continued, "When ma dad took me ta England, that's where I met Rutherford. He made me an offer to help him find someone named Ayumu Narumi and defy our fates for a greater hope. It sounded good, but when I found out that doing that meant I had to kill people, I was confused, like a scared little kid. I didn't want the Hunters to kill me, but I definitely didn't wanna kill anyone. Then, when my pa came here for a business trip, I came with 'im and I got word of Blake's place. I wouldn't hafta live my life in fear and I could live it the way I wanted to. To be honest, I don't know where ma mom and dad are right now. They wanted me to stay at Blake's place so I wouldn't hafta deal with the Hunters wherever I went. I really like it here, it's like...freedom."

His eyebrows knitted together, his tone was much more serious, "Rutherford thought that this Narumi could save us. I know he's a great kid, but I also know that there ain't no human that could save us. If he really came ta save us, who would save him? And if they told me that it was you, then who's gonna save you, Hiyono-chan?"

Hiyono thought about this for a few minutes. Flynn had a point. If she was Ayumu's grapple-hook, his anchor, his crutch and his savior, what was gonna hold her to the ground and support her? Who would save her when she dove in to save Ayumu? Who was gonna be her rock and her foundation that she could depend on?

Satisfied with his wording, Flynn spoke softly, resuming his story, "Since we've been here, Jack, Dest, and I have found that Savior that Rutherford was so desperately looking for in young Ayumu Narumi. Because of that, none of us hafta worry about the Hunters nor any other bloody blokes and happenins."

Hiyono smiled, "Wow..."

Flynn's smile broadened, then faded, "It seems that a bloke named Kanone came from somewhere in the U. S., and as long as Rutherford doesn't spill the bean casserole, we should be jus' fine. He said that Kanone was in Japan right now, but he's planning on coming back here to look for you and Narumi in a few days. Rutherford called me to see if he could crank any info outta me about where you guys were. I told 'im I hadn't seen anybody, but we'll see whether he believed me or not. I heard this Kanone guy was a Blade Children or Blade Child or alien from outer space or something, but he's bent on destruction."

Hiyono gasped. That explained everything! Ayumu must have known that Kanone was coming to Japan, so he must've more or less kidnapped her to take them both somewhere out of his reach!

She listened closely for any more information as Flynn spoke, "Ya see, we was expectin' Madoka Narumi ta come down here, someone gave ol' Blake a tip that she was comin' and she was supposed to stay with us ta keep 'er safe from the Hunters and the Blade Children. However, whoever gave us that tip gave us another one when I arrived at the airport ta pick up Madoka. Jack then called me and tol' me that you two were comin' instead. He told me what ya looked like and I waited there. I'm really sorry if it was really abrupt and prolly pretty creepy."

Hiyono smiled awkwardly, "It was a little weird."

"Again, sorry." He paused for a moment, his foot easing instinctively off the gas pedal, "Hiyono-chan, yer in real danger right now. I don' know if ya realize it, but anyone who wants to destroy the Blade Children are gonna go after their only hope, which, apparently, is Ayumu Narumi. Believe it or not, the easiest way to destroy Ayumu...is to go after you."

Hiyono's eyes widened slightly, "Me?"

This issued a nod from the blond former Blade Child, "Believe it or not, yer one of the only ones he cares about."

The girl's eyes fell to her lap, her mouth barely muttering, "Then why did he leave me here alone?"

Flynn turned to gaze at Hiyono with a surprised expression on his face, his foot pressing on the break pedal, "You feel alone, Hiyono-chan? I-uh..." he cleared his throat, a slight smile crossing his face, "That's probably WHY he left, Hiyono-chan. He cares for ya and he doesn't want ya to get hurt. He knows that the Hunters, among others, will come after ya in an attempt to get at him. So he prolly wanted ya as far away from himself as possible ta keep ya safe."

Hiyono wrinkled her eyebrows together, thinking in silence for a while as she wrapped her arms protectively around herself. Finally, she murmured in a whisper very unlike herself, "Narumi-san...did you really want to keep me away?"

Flynn gave a sigh, deciding to leave his friend to her thoughts for a little while. He pressed the gas pedal hard, the pickup truck roaring up to speed. He knew that Hiyono felt alone, and he knew that only Ayumu Narumi could really fill that loneliness. For Hiyono, he had to make it to that airport in time.

---

The second Flynn turned the car off, Hiyono practically tripped while getting out of the truck. Without looking back, she scrambled into the airport, paying no mind to the people around her carrying luggage that she bumped into. As soon as Flynn could lock up the truck, he jogged in after her.

Slightly panting, Hiyono swung her head in every direction, searching for her infamous brown-haired detective. As Flynn watched her, he couldn't help but smile as she ran about asking people if they'd seen a grumpy-looking teenager whose hair looked like he had stuck his finger in an electrical circuit.

As expected, Hiyono returned empty-handed. What surprised Flynn was the fact that this girl would NOT give up! She was running around looking for him for ten minutes before Flynn decided to sit down. He would have helped her look, but he knew that it would be better for the both of them if he just stayed out of it this time. When Hiyono heard the last call for Ayumu's plane over the loudspeaker, she knew exactly what she had to do. The little news-reporter didn't waste two seconds before she pushed her way down the hall to the entrance of the line to Ayumu's plane. Little did she know that a few airport officials had fell into pursuit behind her because of her obedience of airport behavior, or lack thereof.

Even as she ran, A small voice at the back of Hiyono's brain said that it was still strange to run in pants. When she reached the farthest point she was allowed to go, her mind began to race. She tried not to panic, but it didn't seem to be helping. Her eyes searched relentlessly until she spotted a man in uniform standing beside the line to the entrance of Ayumu's flight.

He glanced in her direction for a moment and spotted her coming his way. Trying to be discreet, he rolled his eyes and acted like he didn't see her. Too frantic to pay any attention to the man's rude gesture, she rushed up to him, bumping into more people and in too much of a hurry to remember to be polite.

With that, she took a deep breath and began to speak and explain the whole situation as quickly as she could and still be understandable. By now, however, the man, as well as a number of other people around her, began to stare at her as if she was from another planet.

When she noticed the stares, Hiyono slowly stopped talking and went over what she had just said in her mind. She covered her mouth with her hand when she realized that the whole time she was talking to the guy, she had been speaking her native Japanese.

After a moment, she shook it off and urgently told him of her situation in English, "Have you seen a really angsty-looking kid with dark brown hair get on this plane? He's a few inches taller than me, has deep brown eyes and doesn't talk very much, but when he's thinking, his eyebrows come together to make "twinkles" in the middle of his forehead."

The man looked at her for a moment and shook his head, obviously trying to mask how strange he thought she was, "Um, no, Miss, sorry. I haven't seen anyone like that." his gruff voice grumbled.

Hiyono turned quickly without a word and meandered through the crowd once again. She could have sworn that she felt an obnoxious teenager intentionally slap her behind as she clawed her way out of the crowd. She heard the teenage rat let out an obnoxious laugh with his friends as she got further away, assuming that she didn't notice.

No, she noticed all right, and she probably would've given that whippersnapper a piece of her mind if she wasn't busy looking for Narumi-san. Wow, maybe this place had taken a toll on her. She was even starting to SOUND like them!

When Hiyono finally found her way back to where Flynn was sitting, he stood and sauntered in his cowboy-like swagger up to her, "Any luck, Hiyono-chan?"

Hiyono shook her head and said nothing. Flynn's eyes found the floor for a moment before he looked up again. His large, calloused hand found rest on her shoulder, his voice soft and reassuring, "Don't worry, Hiyono-chan, it'll be all right."

Both of them knew that Flynn's statement was probably a lie. Flynn knew that, without Ayumu in the United States anymore, the Hunters would have no reason to come after Hiyono. However, he also knew that Hiyono had so much faith in Ayumu that she had come to need him almost as much as he needed her.

Even so, Flynn's encouragement felt nice to Hiyono's heart.

Hiyono was dazed when Flynn took her back out to the truck and suggested that they go back to the ranch and have some hot cocoa to soothe the nerves.

The ride home was nearly completely silent. Flynn could hear Hiyono's every slow, depressing breath. To be honest, Flynn knew what it felt like. If he was honest with himself, he had sugarcoated the story of his life, at least a part of it. Now that part of his life came back to his memory, and brought all the suppressed feelings with it.

When Flynn's father had gone on that business trip to the States, he did take Flynn with him. The young Blade Child had been excited to finally have some quality time with his dad, who had spent most of Flynn's life on business trips. When they first arrived in the United States, Flynn's father took his son out to nice restaurants, they pigged out on pies and pizza, and they played classic American football in the park.

Flynn had no idea that there was anything wrong when his father took him to a horse ranch to go horse-back riding and watch rodeos from the front stands. He had no idea that there was anything wrong when his father had gone out to rent some movies while he left Flynn at the ranch.

Flynn never saw those rented movies. He never even saw his dad come back with them, or the promised popcorn. The blond kid never saw his father again.

He had tried so hard to forget those memories. Even though the one that saved him had taken away all the hate he had for his father, there was no doubt that those memories still hurt. Deep down, Flynn had to admit that he still wondered every now and then if his father ever once loved him. He knew that this was a stupid thing to think about. He had to keep reassuring himself that, not only did his family love him enough to let him go so he wouldn't be found and killed by the Hunters, his new Father and all of his new family would never let him down.

Flynn could see it in Hiyono's eyes that she was asking herself the exact same thing he had wondered time and time again. Right now, he knew how Hiyono felt. He knew the loneliness, the fear, the sadness. He knew that right now, Hiyono was on the verge of tears.

And she was. Hiyono Yuizaki tried with everything in her to keep those blasted salty droplets from running down her cheeks.

If Ayumu really cared about her, would he have left her all alone like this? The way he always talked to her and the way he got so annoyed when she was around, she was beginning to wonder if he ever once cared about her at all.

She wrapped her arms around herself and concentrated on staring into the darkness out the window. Maybe she was a stupid girl.

---

When Flynn and Hiyono walked silently through the front door, the house was dark, deserted and silent. Flynn casually turned on the kitchen lights and began to fix hot chocolate in the microwave. Both said nothing.

The obnoxious ring of the microwave stunned Hiyono back into reality as she drifted off again. Flynn stirred both mugs and handed one to her. Hiyono took it in both hands and stared at the swirling chocolate for a moment. This reminded Flynn of the one thing he forgot.

Hiyono didn't blink as Flynn dropped a few marshmallows into her mug. Finally, she looked up at him, trying to smile, and spoke softly, "May I take this up to my room?"

Flynn nodded and bid her a low, "Goo' night" accompanied with a friendly, reassuring hug.

The caramel-haired reporter barely answered and slowly plodded up the steps with the mug in hand. As she walked towards her room, she Ayumu's door caught her eye. She just couldn't help herself.

Hiyono sighed and sat down on his bed. Everything was so neat and tidy. It just didn't feel like this was his room. It felt...empty. She couldn't stand it anymore. She couldn't even stand to drink her hot chocolate.

Carefully, she stood up and walked back out of his room. She didn't really want to go to bed just yet. As quietly as she could, Hiyono tiptoed back down the hall and down the stairs. She saw no one in the kitchen and the lights were off, but there was a glow coming from the parlor that she wanted to investigate.

When she came to the fireplace, it seemed like the perfect place to sort her thoughts and forget about them. She didn't think of when or why someone, probably Flynn, had lit the fire in the fireplace, but she was indeed grateful. Without thinking, she settled down in the large armchair in front of the fireplace. As she stared at the crackling fire, she slowly brought her hot cocoa to her lips.

"Ow!" she pulled back suddenly, stunned at the fact that the hot chocolate was still hot. She huffed at the mug and glared at it for a moment, as if it would cool down just by her giving it a critical stare.

"Stupid girl."

Hiyono jumped, gasping at a voice that wasn't hers and almost losing her full mug of cocoa in the process. She knew that voice. Where was it coming from? Was it in her head? Did she want to hear his voice so badly that she was imagining it?

"I'm over here, stupid."

Hiyono's head jerked over to a shadowed side of the room barely lit by the fire, where a hammock hung on stands in the corner. By the time she looked over, the hammock was empty and slightly swinging from the weight that was just removed.

Just about the time that she was going to dismiss it as her imagination, she felt something brushing through her hair. A pair of hands. She knew those hands anywhere. Slowly, she closed her eyes and leaned back on the chair and sighed contently, afraid that it would go away if she looked behind her.

"You're really dumb, you know that?"

His hands brushed through her caramel hair and tugged her braids out of their bindings.

"Oh...Narumi-san."

When his hands stopped stroking her hair, she flinched, hoping that it wasn't her imagination. After a few moments of silence, she finally heard his voice again, "Don't get the wrong idea. You had a huge piece of horse manure stuck in your hair."

Hiyono growled and turned around quickly to kneel on the chair, accidentally spill her cocoa all over the floor, and thrust her puppeted fists at his face. In doing so, the chair tipped with her weight and nearly fell over the side. The reporter gave an exasperated sigh and pulled herself up. Slowly, she stood to her feet to come face to face with her best friend.

He looked the same, but oh MAN, she missed him. She missed his fried hair, she missed his scowling brown eyes, she missed his sloppy way of dressing, she even missed him calling her 'stupid'. She smiled and threw her arms around his neck briefly, whispering into his ear, "I really missed you, Narumi-san."

With that, she walked up the stairs to her room, and he followed not far behind, heading into his own room, both leaving the mug of hot chocolate spilled on the parlor floor.

**What'd you guys think? Suggestions? Criticisms? Comments? Did you guys expect Flynn's real story? What'd you think of when Ayumu came back? Don't worry, I'll explain how that happened...or maybe I won't...hmmm...should I tell or leave it up to the imagination? Only two more chapters for this one, you guys! Here's shout-outs and a preview!**

**Sony89: ** Aw, you don't have to go on with the WONDERFULs...-Blush- Haha! Did you see this one coming?

**dnangel:** Hehe, I loves you too! This fanfic is too much...what? haha, Sorry, ditzy blonde brunette Cheeseballness! Thankies for the compliment!

**Jewely2951: ** Heheee, I know because I know I would be sitting at the computer doing the exact same thing! Only with a spoon of Peanut Butter in my mouth...Here's the extreeeemely late update...I'm sorry! Hmmm, I kinda turned the tables back on ya'll there, didn't I?

**SasuNaruxAyumHino:** Don't worry, hehe, I shall tell LATER what happened to the flower, yesyes. It is a part of me plan, mwahaha, I thank you so much for your constant support and compliments! Tootles and God bless ya!

**BeAuTifuL SmiLe: ** I'm sorry! Sorry for cliffhanger! Don't cry! Here's update! Sorry it was late! Mwahaha! -Proud of self- I did another twist! Hehe! I is quite sorry about the fact that I promised January and it is now February...me sorry!

**putrisha94: ** Aww, thank you so much! I'm glad you think Ayumu isn't so OOC, I was kinda worried that he was...really badly...in at least a few chapters...Here is update! Thank you so much for your love on all my stories!

**Sicilian Maiden: ** Aw, shucks. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hehee, I LOVE uber long reviews! Hehee, it's that update time again! I wish I had time to wish you a fantabulous Christmas as well! Fear not! This will have a happy ending, yesyes, that will satisfy, hopefully, the title. What do you think of Flynn? Hehehee, I twisted it again! Alrighty, now I must be off! Love yous! I must get to sleepy now, I'm quite exhausted...

**El Taco: ** Hmmm, I've been reading some other chapter fics and I've noticed that there are tacos randomly appearing in them. I can only speculate that this is because of the El Taco...Hmmm, now I have competition for my taco scenes! Bahhhh! I think I'd more likely see Chuck Norris on a Barbie commercial than on this fic, but I'll see what I can do...Thank you for your ever-loyal support and if I could cook I would send you tacos over the internet! Tootles!

**spiral fan: ** Haha! Your review has helped kick my busy yet lazy behind into gear! Update! Whoohoo! Thank you much!

**Preview: ** -speaks in over-dramatic announcer voice- The day of the fair has arrived and the best cooks in the state come to battle it out to dish out the best dishes and win a kiss from an adorable news-reporter from Japan. However, how will our 'heroic' detective fare when up against none other than Flynn himself?

**Hopefully Chapter 9 will be up by next month. I love you guys! God bless you and I'll be praying for ya! -Cheeseball out-**


	9. The Competition

**Finally, after school and work and attacks from giant purple dust-bunnies! Okay, I made the last one up. But finally! Chapter 9 has arrived! After much sweat and labor, I have finally finished the second to last chapter! Forgive my incredible tardiness, everybody, but you have nothing to fear for I have not forgotten you all!**

"Whose bright idea was this?!" Blake's deep, gravelly voice hollered.

Like a bad alarm, everyone in the house jolted from their sleep with a tingle up their spine. Doors flung open and young stablehands scrambled down the stairs, nearly crashing into each other multiple times; some wearing only boxers, all motivated by some unspoken fear of additional chores creatively thought up by the old stable-owner.

A sleepy Hiyono slowly trudged out of her room, rubbing her eyes. When she realized that every person in the house was being summoned for an important meeting, she glanced over at Ayumu's door, and, to her huge, enormous surprise, saw it closed.

After knocking a few times without an answer, something sparked in Hiyono's mind. Maybe it was all just a dream. Maybe he really wasn't back after all. Maybe she dreamed it all up. Maybe it was just a figure of her heartsick imagination. Doubt began to creep into her mind like an infection that slowly spread throughout her body. Just as she was about to make her way past his room, she heard a familiar irritated groan from behind the door.

Trying not to let her hopeful smile overwhelm her face, she spun around and burst through his bedroom door, with no hesitation or thought as to what she might find. Although, to her great satisfaction, the sight she found wasn't unfamiliar to her.

There was an Ayumu Narumi-shaped lump on the bed, with a mop of disheveled brown hair at its head. However, as she was about to make her sprint and jump onto the sleeping place of her unsuspecting victim, the rays of sunlight that landed so delicately on her comrade's face and hair caught her off-guard.

Tiptoeing silently closer, she peered down at him, her eyes scanning over his figure. He looked so peaceful. She sometimes saw this expression briefly on his face just before she jumped on him when he was sleeping or before he quickly covered it up when he was awake.

But right now she just stared at him, and how serene he looked. The look was so strange, foreign, to his face, but when the sunlight hit his face and danced around on his hair like that, she couldn't bring herself to wake him up.

She reached out her hand to lightly brush against his chocolate spikes. After getting only close enough to glance a fingertip over his fried hair, she forced a gentle sigh and turned around to walk silently out of his room.

"So now you're resorting to spying on me in my sleep, is that it?" his rich voice speculated.

Hiyono whipped around and slapped a silly grin on her face as his inquisitive brown eyes meticulously studied her every move, "I was just going to give you a wake-up call, Narumi-san!"

Tossing the covers off his body, he sat up and stood to his feet, albeit a bit awkwardly. As he slowly made his way up to her, she heard the exhausted bones in his legs give a tired creak and a light waking-up crack.

He stopped a few feet away from her and gave her his bored, questioning, and irritated stare that he always gave her. What he said was classic curiosity from Ayumu Narumi, but there was something behind the words that shot a nervous chill up Hiyono's spine. "If you were coming to give me a wake-up call, then why did you leave without waking me up with that loud mouth of yours?"

Hiyono, trying to hide a blush, suddenly found that staring down at her friend's socks was quite amusing. When she did look back up in his eyes, a sincere, gentle and somewhat giddy smile crossed her face. Ayumu rolled his eyes as if he'd just been reminded of some agonizing chore he had to do. Grabbing something out of a vase on the night-stand, he casually tossed it to her.

"Here."

The reporter caught the object delicately in her hands. Her eyes were immediately drawn to it. It was a vibrant iris that was more blue than violet, in full bloom. Her mouth hung open for a few minutes.

He didn't give any explanation whatsoever, but he honestly looked like he was ready to fall back in bed and fall asleep. He didn't seem to care if he waited for her response or not. Much to his surprise, however, she took a couple steps closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.

Flabbergasted and more than a bit uncomfortable, he glanced down at her, in wonder of what on Earth possessed this girl to do the things she did.

Then her muffled voice reached his ears, "I really missed you, Narumi-san."

"Hn."

Hiyono didn't expect Ayumu to tell her that he missed her too, but this was enough. She didn't expect him to hug her back either, it just wasn't Narumi-san to do such a thing.

A small smile curled onto her face. She whispered into his old t-shirt, "But I knew that Narumi-san wouldn't stay away. I knew...that he wouldn't leave me behind."

His usually irritated voice lowered to a sleepy but gentle mutter, "Hn. How'd you know that? How'd you know that I wouldn't just take off and never come back?"

Hiyono buried her face into his shoulder and glanced up at him, "Because, Narumi-san is useless without me."

At that moment, Ayumu's brown eyes fixed on hers. Her words resounded, echoing in his ears. It brought some familiarity, as if she'd used them before but he couldn't place it. There were no words. No explanation for the thoughts swirling about in Ayumu's head. He felt something resembling a knot begin to grow and fester in his throat. He had to swallow once, trying to master the strange feelings buzzing around in his brain. No way. He couldn't give in.

As his companion's face grew closer, Ayumu found his eyes focusing on her face. His hand rose and slowly snaked its way up her neck and came to rest on her jaw.

Hiyono's eyes were transfixed on her best friend. That determined, yet somehow gentle look on his face nearly scared her out of her skin, but she couldn't will herself to move. She gulped down the wad of saliva that nagged at the back of her mouth, and suddenly her mouth became very dry.

Goose-bumps trailed up her body as she felt his warm hand touch her face. Her heart nearly skipped a beat and began slamming against her chest like an unruly child with a new drum set. Hiyono saw his eyes studying her face before coming to a stop at her mouth.

She still had her arms laced around his neck, her head was still barely rested against his shoulder. His neck bent to look down, almost sideways, at her, his head was tilted and his determined eyes slid half-way closed, still focused on her mouth. She could feel the sunlight from the window spilling on her face, and she could see the dawn rays flickering orange on half of her friend's face, the other half bathed in shadow. It danced on his dark, chocolate hair and, at one point, she saw it flicker a bright shine on his half-lidded eye.

She took a moment to lick her parted lips, trying to keep them from completely drying out. She let out a heavy inhale and exhale and tilted her head up to keep him from hurting his neck, or so she told herself. Mustering up all the scattered courage she could gather, she skittishly leaned into him as his hand on her jaw drew her closer.

Ayumu closed his eyes and leaned forward, his mouth parting in unconscious anticipation and expectation. His heart thundered. He could feel the sun on his face and he felt the tip of her nose touch his own. Ayumu could feel her soft, anxious breaths on his skin. It was as if he'd suddenly lost his reservation and dignity to that one highly-guarded part of himself that he tried to hide away. Maybe he'd make a note to hate it later, right now was a different story.

"Get those lovesick little runts down here RIGHT NOW before they end up being the next ones to clean the chicken coop!" Blake's voice stormed through the house like thunder.

Hiyono jumped, nearly whacking her head against Ayumu's. Both felt their breaths come in short, nervous gasps, although Ayumu managed to hide it pretty well. Without a word, Hiyono scurried out of Ayumu's room, blushing furiously, the iris still delicately clutched in her hands.

Ayumu stared at the floor for a few moments, blinking. What had gotten into him? Was he actually going to...? _Ewwww,_ he cringed. Stupid hormones. Stupid ranch. Stupid...Hiyono...

He shook himself out of his daze and slowly made his way out of his room and down the stairs to see what all the ruckus was about. As he was walking down the stairs, he heard Blake's voice holding some sort of interrogation.

"So which one of you ungrateful couch potatoes left a full mug a' cocoa all over the floor?"

As Ayumu reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Hiyono gulp once and bow apologetically, "It was me...I'm so sorry, Blake-san."

Blake's pale blue eyes softened a bit, "Well, Hiyono, jus' try to be more careful, aiight?"

Hiyono gave a small nod and stared at the floor for a moment, apparently in deep thought. Ayumu raised an eyebrow, wondering what she was thinking about. Whatever it was, her face began to glow a frighteningly bright red.

"Alright, all a' ya, the fair starts in a half an hour, I wanna see every single one a' ya outside ready to leave in five minutes!" Blake shouted before shoving a sponge and a small bucket of soapy water in the face of a passing stablehand and assigning him to clean up the mess in the parlor.

As all the stablehands scattered about, Ayumu slowly walked up to Hiyono, who tried to mask her blush with her goofy smile.

He furrowed his eyebrows, "I hope you honestly don't think that I'll actually go through with this competition."

"But, Narumi-san..." her eyes pleaded.

"No."

She puffed out her bottom lip, giving him her best imitation of puppy dog eyes, which, much to Ayumu's chagrin, she was very talented at, "Please? For me?"

Ayumu had to try to make one last stand. He turned away from her, "No. Absolutely not. There's no way you're getting me anywhere near that fickle paradise for overfed hooligans."

--

"Not a word of this to anyone back home, you got that?" Ayumu Narumi spat.

Hiyono walked triumphantly beside him, her victory evident on her face. Ayumu hated how she manipulated him. A trade secret, she called it. Total blackmail, more like. How she found out whose name he said in his sleep, he didn't really want to know. She must have gotten her information a long time ago, though, because she wouldn't be so calm if she knew whose name he really- Wait. Stop. More stupid hormones. Why on Earth did-? When did he start-?

He forced his mind to stop short before he could finish each thought. Now she was strolling alongside him, munching on an overstuffed taco that looked more like a Sloppy Joe than a taco. Luckily, it was Flynn she bribed it out of instead of him this time. Man, that girl could eat.

And she wouldn't stop talking about how delicious his food was going to be in the competition, hoping that somehow she could "persuade" some of the judges to let her have a taste. She didn't even seem to be worried about the end result of the competition, or what she would have to do.

With each defeated step towards the Kiss the Cook competition tent, Ayumu felt his stomach reel with nausea. When he reached the tent, he was greeted by the same librarian-like woman who had been sitting at the table when Hiyono had signed him up for his doom. She patted her hand on his shoulder and pointed to a small crowd of people behind the stage where the competition was to be held, "The host is back there talkin' to the participants right now, ya better hurry."

Ignoring the woman's suggestion to quicken his pace, he trudged heavily over to the crowd and resigned himself to leaning against the stage wall, still in range of what the host was telling the competitors. Of course, his efforts to isolate himself proved futile once again.

"Yo, Narumi! C'mon, yer gonna miss all the rules!" Flynn shouted, drawing everyone's attention to the brunette who would have preferred to remain unnoticed. Ayumu gave a perturbed sigh and meandered over to the crowd, still making sure to stay at the edge of the conversation. Since when was Flynn entered in this competition? This whole thing just got worse, for the young detective at least.

The host carried on without a care, obviously obsessed with hearing himself talk, "Alrighty, all a' yas, there are twenty-seven of ya competing for the grand prize. This competition consists of four rounds. The first round will be a simple appetizer of your choice. But choose wisely, because out of the twenty-seven of ya that are competin', only ten of ya will move on to the next round. For those who do move on, the second round is a soup or stew or your choice. From that round, five will proceed to the third round. The third round will be any barbecued recipe of your selection."

He then overemphasized his voice to make what he said sound so much more exciting than it actually was, "Finally, the fourth round will involve the final three contestants, and the category will be...any dessert of your choice!"

The host seemed to linger on the thought of dessert for a few moments before he finally moved on, "The judges will sample every dish from every round, then they will make a fair decision. Each round will last only an hour and a half for time purposes, so choose your dish wisely! You must present the dish, finished or not, to the judges at the end of the time limit. You may use any tool or appliance that the fair possesses as long as it is approved by the contest's manager, the beautiful woman sitting at the front desk, or if it is listed on the rules sheet. The winner will receive this year's trophy, one of their own recipes published in the county's next cookbook, and, last but _definitely_ not least, a kiss from the beautiful Hiyono Yuizaki!"

Some of the guys whistled, some cheered, some clapped. Ayumu nearly snorted, trying to contain his laughter at the host's last comment. All seemed eager to begin the competition, so the host continued without delay, "You will have a half an hour to think and prepare your recipes. Then you will have two hours to buy ingredients and bring them back here. The competition starts promptly at one o'clock. Contestants late coming back will be disqualified. Any questions?"

Ayumu turned and began walking away while the host kept talking. He immersed himself in deep thought of what Texan dishes he could possibly cook up. So wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't notice Flynn trotting up beside him. The blond smiled, "So, Narumi, ya ready for the competition?"

"Hn. I guess."

Flynn frowned a moment, then shrugged, "Well, ta' make things a little easier for ya, Texan dishes are preferred, but it's not limited ta that, so, just ta let ya know..."

"Yeah."

Flynn then held up his pointer finger as if he'd just remembered something, "Oh yeah! Hiyono-chan tells me yer cookin's insane. I jus' wanna tell ya that I won't go easy on ya!"

With that, he took off, leaving Ayumu with even more conflicting thoughts of how on earth he was going to trounce Flynn in this ridiculous competition.

--

Hiyono tore off another chunk of cotton candy and stuffed it in her mouth, "Narumi-san, I hope you're planning on cooking me a victory feast!"

He glanced over at her proud grin and glanced away quickly, still trying to figure out what recipes he would attempt. He wasn't sure what appetizer he would do, but that was pretty easy. The barbecue and the stew weren't too difficult to decide either, but he knew he'd really have to step up to the plate. Texas and barbecue seemed almost synonymous. The dessert was what troubled him. It was such a broad category. What on Earth could he make that could turn the competition in his favor?

"If you give me the ingredient list, I can get all the ingredients and bring them back." Destrier offered, walking silently beside them up until now.

Hiyono turned to the young stablehand, "Isn't that cheating?"

Dest's cat-like blue eyes flashed a for a moment, "Nope. It's in the rules."

He pulled out a folded-up rules sheet from his back pocket and handed it to Ayumu, who took it and scanned it over. Hiyono leaned over her friend's shoulder to read, "One companion to aid with collection of ingredients is acceptable." she read aloud.

Ayumu quickly shoved the paper into Destrier's chest and ordered, "Very well. I'm going to need-"

"Wait, Narumi-san! Do you have money for all this?"

The chef didn't speak. After looking back and forth at Ayumu and Hiyono, Destrier spoke up, "Don't worry. The fair pays for the food used in the competition. And plus, after Narumi helped with setting up the fair, the least they can do is pay for the food he uses in the cooking competition."

"Are you sure?" Hiyono implored.

Dest nodded, "Positive."

Ayumu cleared his throat and continued, "Well, then I'm going to need 3 to 4 pounds of chicken wings, a cup of plain yogurt, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, a few pressed garlic cloves, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, cayenne, at least a half cup of dry bread crumbs, at least a half cup of Parmesan cheese, bacon slices, chicken broth, carrots, celery, a couple apples, curry powder, peppercorns, bay leaves, all-purpose flour, water, hot cooked rice, a pint of half-and-half, a thing of whole cloves, 8 large artichokes, 2 2-pound beef loin tenderloin roasts, red wine vinegar, a green onion, tarragon, cracked black pepper, eggs, softened butter, fresh parsley and any other seasonings you can find. Is that right, as far as how you Americans measure?"

Dest nodded, trying to remember everything that he had been told. Ayumu then scratched his chin for a moment, "Oh yeah, and..." with that, he leaned over to whisper something in Destrier's ear, careful not to let Hiyono hear his plans.

Ayumu shoved his hands in his pockets, "You got all that?"

A small smirk spread on Destrier's face, "Consider it gotten."

As the young scruffy brunet disappeared into the crowd, Ayumu began to walk back in the other direction, muttering just so Hiyono could hear, "I don't trust him."

Hiyono followed him like a loyal puppy dog, thinking about what he'd said, "But, Narumi-san..."

She didn't say anything more. She wanted to tell him what Flynn had told her, but she knew that now was not the time to tell him, if she ended up telling him at all. After a few minutes of walking around, Hiyono finally asked, "Narumi-san? Do you want to win the competition?"

It didn't occur to her until after she had opened her mouth and said it that there may have been an underlying question in her simple statement. She suddenly realized what she really meant.

"I'd rather not be involved at all."

"Oh." her voice dropped.

A slightly awkward silence followed. Ayumu didn't seem bothered by it at all, he actually seemed to be enjoying it. But Hiyono found herself caught up in her thoughts. Maybe this was a bad idea. There was no guarantee that she would get any taste of the detective's delicious cooking, and now she had gotten herself into a position where she'd have to give a kiss to the winner. What if the winner was some perverted old guy or something? _Ewwww, nasty! _No. She wouldn't let herself think that stuff. She had faith in Ayumu. She knew he could do it. The question was, now, would he care enough to do it?

"Yo. What's going on?" Ayumu turned abruptly to face her.

Trying to keep herself from blushing, Hiyono replied, "W-What do you mean, N-Narumi-san?"

He raised an eyebrow, "You're quiet. It's nice, but it means that something's seriously wrong."

She blinked a few times at him, "I was? It does? Oi, I mean, I was just thinking about something..."

Ayumu folded his arms across his chest, "Okay, now I know that something's definitely wrong."

Hiyono shook her head, her braids whipping back and forth, "Nope, nothing's wrong, Narumi-san, honest."

She was a really bad liar. And she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep it from him. There was nothing she could say that would keep him from finding out. He turned and began walking. Slightly irritated and offended that he didn't continue his interrogation, she trotted to keep up. She pouted, then asked him, her eyes diverting to the floor, "Narumi-san? What...what made you come back?"

His barely noticeable smirk told her that he knew that she would spill her guts all along. That look sometimes aggravated her to no end. His mouth twitched, his eyebrows furrowing together as he thought. He lightly elbowed her side, muttering in his low, deep voice, the one he used when he said something from his heart that he didn't want to be heard or repeated, "You said it yourself, didn't you? I'm useless without you."

Hiyono stopped dead in her tracks. Did he say what she thought he said? Ayumu glanced back briefly and muttered, "You don't honestly think I mean that, do you? What on Earth would I need a stupid airhead for?"

Hiyono puffed out her cheeks and launched her bear-puppeted Hiyono Punch at his shoulder. As he rubbed his sore shoulder, she knew that she wasn't the only one that was a bad liar.

--

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I, George Lexington, am proud to host this year's Kiss the Cook competition! Standing before you are twenty-seven young men who are competing for the title of Champion chef, this year's trophy, a recipe published in the county's cookbook, and a kiss from a lovely visitor, here from Japan, Hiyono Yuizaki!"

Hiyono tried not to cringe as the host pronounced her name horribly wrong for another time. She bit her lip and waved to the crowd that now had all their eyes on her, cheering. When the spotlight returned to the host and the applause and whistles died down, George Lexington continued, once again overemphasizing his voice as if he was in a really bad adaptation of Godzilla, "Now, you will behold twenty-seven young chefs from around the county, and even around the world, battle in the first round of our competition. During the first round, the chefs will prepare the appetizer of their choice within a half an hour's time."

Hiyono's eyes shifted quickly to Ayumu, who looked incredibly bored. Finally, Ayumu wrinkled his eyebrows, the host's words finally sinking in. _That no-good double-crossing charlatan! _ He had said there would be an hour and a half for the preparation of each dish. Now he decided to decrease it to thirty minutes! It would take that long just to let the oven cook the stuff! Ayumu took a glance around. Each of the other cooks had the same confused and slightly shocked expression on their face, which told Ayumu that this was a surprise to them as well.

"Only ten will move on to the next round, so let the competition begin!" the host set the needle of a huge timer and resigned himself to a seat next to it.

Hiyono watched as the twenty-some frantic cooks rushing through their ingredients and hurriedly beginning on their work. There were a couple that actually just sat there. Hiyono spotted Flynn, who was calmly and happily working on his dish. Through the crowd's whoops and cheers, she could actually hear Flynn humming, which was oddly unsurprising to her.

The main focus of her eyes, however, was her own piano-playing Narumi. His expressionless eyes and effortless motions she had witnessed a hundred times, but it still amazed her how he could be so professional during a timed contest.

He fashioned the chicken wings with precise accuracy. Mixing the other ingredients in a medium-size bowl took less than a few minutes. He threw the wings in the bowl and shook them, then left them to marinate for a few minutes as he mixed the remaining ingredients, along with a few of his own.

As he performed the job which Hiyono loved the most, she couldn't help but watch him. His movements were so fluid and natural, as if he was born doing this kind of work. That's what made her just a tiny bit jealous. He was like that with EVERYTHING! Whether he admitted it or not, of course.

Now, while everyone's attention was on the contestants, she had to somehow make her way to the other side of the ridiculously huge stage and have a little talk with the host. Just as she was about to get up, however, she heard a couple outbursts from the stage coming in her direction.

Some were flattering, although most were quite absurd as the cooks from the stage arrogantly promised their victory and eagerly awaited their reward. Hiyono tapped her foot impatiently, hoping that her brunet would hurry up and win this stupid contest already.

She saw him put his tray of something in the oven before he took off his cooking mitts and waited. Seeing him wait made her even more nervous, although he didn't seem to be worried. She just hoped that he knew what he was doing.

As he stood by the oven he had claimed, he heard some smart-mouthed remarks shot in his direction.

"Hey guys, look! He stuck his head too far into the oven and it fried his brain!"

"No wonder his hair looks like that!"

Hiyono shot death glares at the little whelps that dared to insult her Narumi-san. None of which they caught, of course.

When the buzzer made a terrifying screech, the host got up and announced, "All contestants stop their cooking now! The judges will be around to taste your creations!"

Ayumu took his dish out of the oven, proceeding to burn his hands after forgetting to put the oven mitts back on. He gritted his teeth against the pain, nearly letting out a hiss, as he doused the dish with melted butter as well as a few final spices.

The host cleared his throat, "I said, stop your cooking now, Mr. Narumi."

Ayumu could barely restrain a growl as he set the jar of spice down, all eyes turning to him. He made a mental note to order Hiyono to refrain from saying a word to him for the rest of his life, or at least until he could get back home and get a few whole weeks of sleep.

Hiyono bit her lip, making a mental note to work extra hard for the detective when he got home, maybe even try her luck at making him a bentou lunch. Either way, she'd have to do something to somehow make it up to him.

As Ayumu nearly shoved the plate of Cheesy Chicken Wings into the faces of the judges when they came around, he angrily stoked over what other surprises the host had in store for them. The judges each took a taste of his concoction, their eyes widening as they began to nod slightly and write something down on their papers.

After the judges tasted each of the cook's dishes, they returned to their table and whispered amongst themselves for a few minutes. One of the judges scribbled a list down on a piece of paper and handed it to the host, whispering something in his ear.

The host then nodded and took up the microphone once again, bellowing, "And the results are in! The following will go on to Round 2! Please hold your applause until the list is finished."

As the host rattled off the list of names, Hiyono nearly jumped out of her seat when she heard both Ayumu's and Flynn's names. The remaining chefs not listed walked solemnly off the stage.

The host then continued, announcing that Round 2 would last merely an hour and the category would be stews and soups. While Ayumu stewed over the speculation that the host probably had this thing rigged, Hiyono sat uncomfortably in her designated seat, now very anxious for the competition to be over.

To be honest, Hiyono had never kissed anybody, except maybe her parents. A blush rose to her face. How'd she get herself into this mess?

When Hiyono had once again pulled herself together, the contest was well into the second round. Ayumu was chopping vegetables with inhuman speed and tossing them into the kettle.

The second round proceeded very similar to the first. Hiyono couldn't find a moment where she could get out of her chair and have a talk with the host and Ayumu finished the Mulligatawny soup with just seconds to spare. The judges came around and tasted each stew, marking their thoughts on their papers.

As Hiyono predicted, Ayumu was one of the five that proceeded to the third round. And, to her surprise, Flynn went on to the next round as well.

When Mr. George Lexington announced that the third round would only last an hour, it was obvious that the cooks had trouble restraining themselves, and Hiyono eyed the host suspiciously. Pulling her pink notebook and a pen out of a hidden pocket of her dress, she stood up and walked over to the host as he set the timing needle for the third round.

Ayumu prepared the artichokes at lightning speed, his burnt hands aching terribly. He tried his best to ignore it when the salt scratched at the burning red spots on his hands. His hands began to throb as he put the roasts on broil. That's when he heard that voice again.

"Does that little twerp honestly expect to win anything? He probably can't even win the pie-throwing contest...as the target!" the arrogant dark-haired cook laughed.

Ayumu rolled his eyes. What annoyed him even more than Hiyono was some high-strung kid whose arrogance was so expansive that he proceeded to laugh at his own very poor jokes and maintain a conversation with himself just so he could hear his own voice.

"He must've gotten his hair styled by a porcupine!" he chuckled.

As the kid flipped the barbecue ribs on his designated grill, he continued, laughing harder, "I'm still waiting for him to start some kung fu ninja moves on the beef! I don't think it's quite dead yet! It's still mooing!"

Ayumu blew the hair out of his face. _Who in the world did this little runt think he was? And where on Earth did he get his jokes? If he was going to make fun of people, he could at least stop getting his insults from bubble gum wrappers._

"Howdy, Jim. Didya ferget that I'm here?" Flynn's multi-accented drawl inputed. Ayumu could have sworn he heard the dark-haired cook sneer, "Oh, no. Flynn. Not you."

Flynn chuckled heartily and continued, the typical huge grin on his face, "Ya know, I distinctly remember ya flirtin' with the competition girl before the contest started two years ago. I also distinctly remember yer face when you sat on the oven's hot burners. Ya wouldn't be beat in the high jump if ya had competed."

As Ayumu glanced over, he noticed that Flynn was having a terrible time trying to stop himself from bursting out in laughter. When he cleared his throat and mastered himself, he continued, "Then there was that other time when you took a shot at the pie eating contest and you had stayed up all night trying to practice so you could be faster and pack down more. You ended up falling asleep in the lemon meringue pie. It took a few hours to get the meringue off your face."

This time, Flynn couldn't restrain a chuckle. As he finished, he found himself laughing or snorting between every few words, having an even more difficult time controlling himself, "And remember last year when you were trying to fix that girl's truck...and ya ended up missing the whole fireworks display because...because they took a few hours cleaning the grease and smoke off yer face? Oh yeah, then there was three years ago when ya tried to help out with the strength meter thing with the hammer..."

"Okay, Flynn! You've made your point!" Jim hissed between his clenched teeth. Flynn couldn't help but burst out with a howl of laughter. It seemed that the audience couldn't restrain their laughter either.

With that, the cooks turned their attention back to their grills. A billow of smoke suddenly puffed out from Flynn's grill. The audience gave a slight gasp, Jim seemed oddly smug about it, unable to keep the smirk from his face. Grabbing both pot-holders, Flynn coughed and waved the pot-holders over the grill, trying to clear the smoke away. Then he laughed, glancing at Ayumu, "Guess that'll teach me to shoot off my mouth."

By the time the buzzer rang, Ayumu had finished early, Flynn was still trying to clear the smoke away, and the other cooks just stood there with their plates, some trying to hide a snicker. As the judges came around, one of the old guys that tasted Flynn's widened his eyes, "Mr. Anderson, your Continental Beef Steak tastes better burnt than it does normally, and that's really saying something. Congratulations, son."

Flynn lifted his eyebrows and stroked his chin, obviously thinking on the compliment, and perhaps, trying to decipher whether it was a compliment or an insult. The judges tasted all the dishes, stopping for a few moments at Ayumu's station. They looked pretty impressed by the Chateaubriand that he had cooked up, as did the audience. Ayumu took a glance over to Hiyono's empty chair. Where in the world would she go at this point in the contest? A bad time for a bathroom break.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen. The time for the final round has arrived! Those moving on to the final round are James Taylor, Flynn Anderson, and Ayumu Narumi!"

A cheer went around the audience. Everyone was anxiously awaiting the beginning of the final round. But where was Hiyono?

"The fourth round will consist of a dessert of your choice. The time limit will be..." a slight muffled gag was heard, "The time limit will be...infinite."

The crowd gasped, and Ayumu suspiciously raised an eyebrow. He had a creeping suspicion of where Hiyono was now. He smelled 'trade secrets' and blackmail.

Mr. Lexington then continued, "The tournament will end when the last cook finishes cooking his dessert!"

A minute later Hiyono reappeared on her side of the stage and sat down in her chair.

Mr. Lexington coughed a few times and readjusted his collar before smirking and announcing, "Just kidding, folks! The fourth round will be fifteen minutes long!"

His proud, almost malicious smirk could barely be hidden under his mustache. Hiyono had to stop herself from standing up from her seat as the crowd gasped again. Even Ayumu seemed surprised, but like Flynn, he seemed unnaturally unfazed.

As George Lexington turned the timing needle hastily, he yelled, "Let the final round BEGIN!"

From behind the stage, Destrier came out holding some big heavy contraption. The boy put it on Ayumu's counter and scurried away. Ayumu plugged the machine in and began working. At the moment, he wasn't worried about what Flynn or that other guy was doing. This required special concentration.

Hiyono could barely contain herself in her seat. She hated not knowing what was going on at such a critical time as this! She was about to say 'goodbye' to her first kiss, and she couldn't stand the thought of kissing that Jim guy. She strained to see what Ayumu was doing, and obviously, so was the whole audience. A number of them were standing up, standing on tiptoe to try to get a glimpse of what was going on.

A burst of flame burst from Flynn's pan, directing the audience to the sizzling fire. Hiyono could have sworn those fifteen minutes were the longest ones of her life.

When the buzzer rang, Hiyono felt like her heart was going to burst. She could hear it thundering in her ears as the judges slowly got up from their chairs and walked over to the cooks. They were very talented at remaining emotionless through most of it, though Hiyono began to notice little things that told her whether they did or did not like what they tasted. As they finally came over to Ayumu's station, Hiyono puffed her cheeks to keep herself from popping. She saw them lift up something and tear off a piece to put in their mouths. Their expressions were of complete and total shock. Although, from what she could gather, it wasn't bad. But what was it that Ayumu had made? Was it...cotton candy?

Still picking the cotton candy from their fingers, the judges walked over to the host and whispered something to him before walking out of the tent. The host nodded and announced into the microphone, "We will have a fifteen-minute break while the judges debate their decision."

Okay, strike that. THIS was the longest fifteen minutes of Hiyono's life. Twiddling her fingers, she looked across the audience, who had erupted into conversation. Suddenly, she heard a voice come in her direction, "Hey, Miss Yuizaki, right? Can I call you Hiyono? Or how about Hiyo-Hiyo?"

Hiyono turned around just in time to see Jim leaning over her chair, a debonaire smile on his face that looked stretched and fake, as if it was made of plastic. Hiyono stole a glance at Ayumu, who was cleaning out the cotton candy machine. Man, that boy looked good in an apron. Shaking the thought, she turned back to look at Jim, if only for a split second, "Um, Hiyono's fine, I guess."

"Well, Hiyono, only ten more minutes. Are you getting anxious?" he smirked, giving Hiyono an extremely uneasy feeling. She strained to see Ayumu, but of course, he had disappeared.

"There's really nothing to be nervous about, Hiyono, dear. You'll know what to do." he continued creepily. Hiyono gulped, stuttering a bit, "Um, heh, thanks, but I just remembered that I had promised a friend that I'd help him prepare for the dunking booth."

Jim leaned on the arm of her chair, a knowing smile on his face, "Oh, I think I see what's going on. This is your first kiss, isn't it? You don't have to be nervous, it's not worth fretting about unless one of those other bozos win."

With that, Hiyono stood to her feet, pointing a finger into Jim's chest, "Each of those guys is more of a man than you'll ever be!"

Jim grasped Hiyono's arm, but before he had time to do anything, Hiyono heard Flynn's irritated yell, "Hey!"

A hand grabbed Jim's arm tightly and spun the country boy around to face him.

"You keep your filthy hands off her, you pathetic creep." Ayumu Narumi hissed, squeezing Jim's arm tighter as he spoke. Jim shook Ayumu's hand off and backed away, giving both competitors a cold glare before smiling one last time at Hiyono, "Only five minutes left. I'll be looking forward to it."

When Jim walked back to his place on stage, Flynn took a few glances between his companions and slowly backed away. Hiyono took a few steps toward the brunet, her eyes fixed on the floor, "Na-Narumi-san?"

Ayumu put a hand on her shoulder, "You stupid girl. Are you hurt?"

Hiyono shook her head, "No, I'm fine."

The detective used his other hand to gently lift her face so he could look her eye to eye. Hiyono stared into his chocolate eyes for a few moments, entranced by whatever held her to his gaze. Suddenly, Ayumu shoved a tissue quite literally in her face, "You're lying. Here, your nose is dripping horribly."

The reporter wiped her nose and pouted, punching his arm with her bear puppet, "That's really mean, Narumi-san!"

The two stood silently for a moment, Hiyono waiting for him to do something or leave, and Ayumu waiting for her to spill her guts like she always did, or so he thought. Finally, "Narumi-san?"

"Hn."

Her eyes travelled to his, an unexplainable look on her face, "Narumi-san, if-if you don't, you know, win the competition-which I know you will, but-if you didn't..."

She was interrupted by a loud trumpeting noise that signaled the judges' return. Mr. Lexington talked with them for a few moments before they handed him a closed envelope. The audience inched forward in their seats. They could take the suspense no less than Hiyono could!

George Lexington cleared his throat and began, "We have now received information on the winner of this year's Kiss the Cook contest!"

Hiyono's heart thumped as the seconds went ticking slowly away, like one of the numerous bombs that Ayumu had dismantled right there by her side. She felt like she would explode any second. Suddenly she realized how stupid this whole thing really was. They should be solving mysteries and cracking cases, but she had dragged her best friend into a stupid fair contest which signed her own first kiss away like it was signing herself into slavery. She still had no idea why Ayumu had agreed to go on with it.

Ayumu honestly had no clue whatsoever why he had let himself go through with this ridiculous competition. He could be reading up on the next new breakthrough in oven mitts or watching an infomercial on the newest steak knives. While he knew it was a stupid waste of time to read and watch those kinds of things, it was much better than being here...with Hiyono. Wait! He could be sleeping! Yes, that would be the best possible place to be right now, sleeping on his own bed, no alarm clock, no Hiyono jumping on him to wake him up. Just long, peaceful sleep.

"And the winner of this year's Kiss the Cook competition is..." Mr. Lexington's voice drawled. When he ripped the envelope, it sounded like the tearing of a huge cloth, echoing throughout the room. Everything else was silent. The audience nearly drooled in anticipation. Hiyono squirmed anxiously. This was the worst time to tease the audience. She was nearly dying in her chair, and he just kept stalling. From the look on his face, Mr. Lexington seemed to be greatly enjoying it.

"Flynn Anderson!" he roared. The audience whooped and cheered. If Hiyono wasn't already sitting, she would have crashed to the ground like a rock. Ayumu just stared, an unreadable expression on his face. She felt like she was going through a living nightmare! Sure, she thought of Flynn as a friend and a brother, but the thought of kissing someone she felt that way about made her want to hurl.

As Flynn walked up to the microphone and received the trophy in his hands, it was obvious he couldn't stop himself from giving a huge smile. It was this gigantic, happy, knowing smile mixed with a smirk, and it was plastered on his face as if it had always been there. He cleared his throat and began speaking into the microphone, "Well, hiya everybody. I'm, yeah, wow, so honored ta be chosen for the winner of this here contest. I've been workin' at my cookin' since I was knee-high to a pomeranian."

The audience was silent. Someone coughed. Flynn continued, his cat-like green eyes scanning over the crowd, "Yeah, yeah, I know that wasn't funny, but the point is, I've been workin' hard over the years for this kinda privilege, and I'm happy to be named yer champion. But this trophy here, the publication of a recipe, and the first kiss of the beautiful young lady sitting over there, " he motioned to Hiyono, "none of this is mine to claim."

The audience gasped. Flynn sighed, "I don't deserve any of this. I mean, sure I worked hard, but in the long run, I don't want this empty cup. I don't want any of this junk to be my pride and joy or my most prized possessions. Nothing you can offer would ever hold a place in my life. Nothing you can give me would be something I would treasure. Because I don't want it. My real treasure's waiting for me up there." he pointed to the sky. Most of the audience glanced up to see what he was pointing at before it sunk in.

If possible, Flynn smiled wider than before, "So, instead I offer these gifts to someone who does deserve it. My ol' chum, Ayumu Narumi!"

Hiyono almost fell off her seat. She was so flabbergasted she couldn't make herself think. Ayumu looked similar to a very pale zombie. The crowd gasped and sat silent for a few moments, obviously taking all this in themselves. Then there came an uproarious cheer from the crowd as Flynn shoved the trophy into Ayumu's hands. Hiyono could barely breathe. She only began to gather her thoughts as the crowd began to chant, "Kiss the cook! Kiss the cook! Kiss the cook!"

A wave of embarrassment washed over her face as her entire face grew red. As Flynn passed, he smiled and nudged her to get out of her seat. Awkwardly she stood and nearly waddled over to where Ayumu was standing, her heart thundering in her ears with every footstep.

When she found herself face to face with her best friend, she could barely make herself look up at him. Finally, she heaved a heavy sigh and locked her caramel eyes with his dark ones. He had the most peculiar expression on his face, which caused her face to redden even more significantly. Hiyono took a big breath, the audience still chanting in her ears. She took a step closer to Ayumu and put her hand on his shoulder to steady herself. Her fingertips tingled when she touched him. Slowly she began to lean forward and close her eyes. The audience squirmed on the edge of their seats, still chanting and growing quite impatient.

She slipped her eyes completely closed as she felt that he would actually let her kiss him. Suddenly, he yanked his shoulder from her grasp, causing her eyes to fly open. His dark eyes drilled cavern-deep holes in her heart. He muttered coldly, "You should be free to kiss whoever you want, but I'm out of here."

He turned and walked off the stage, leaving Hiyono standing there alone, holding the trophy he had shoved in her hand. The audience growled and gasped and booed, but Hiyono just stood there. Flynn walked up onto the stage and gently pulled Hiyono out of the way of any anonymous throwing tomatoes that might have come her way. Ayumu had completely left the tent, leaving only the trophy in Hiyono's hands as proof that he was ever really there at all.

**Please refrain from falling off your chairs.**

**Oh man, the more I was writing this, the more I turned into a melting pile of goo, so if this chapter is pretty bad, that might be why. If you skipped or skimmed most of the competition part, I don't blame you whatsoever. I was dying of boredom just writing it. Up until the end, of course. Which reminds me, I wonder exactly how many people hate my guts right now...Hmm...**

**Anywho, only one more chapter...We're getting really close, y'all. Wow...this whole thing's gotta be over 30,000 words by now, that's insane! As for the final chapter, I wonder how many of you will boil and fester and brood until I post it...well, unless this chapter was incredibly bad. If it was, say so and be specific! If I made some stupid or huge terrible mistakes, please don't hesitate to tell me! It's like going to school with a hole in your pants...wouldn't you want a friend or someone to tell you that you have a hole in your pants rather than going around school like that all day?**

**Okay, I know, I'm babbling. Anybody know what time it is? Haha! Time for shout-outs!**

**BeAuTifuL SmiLe**- I wonder if you'll still want the next chapter...I think I seriously rocked the boat on this one! If you fainted last time I updated, I wonder what happened after this chapter...I hope nothing was injured! Anywho, oi! Please don't bow down to me, although bowing down to the one I serve is perfectly awesome! -points to sky- Heheee! Tootles and God bless ya! Until Chapter 10! -Dun dun dun-

**spiral fan**- Ah, yes, 'tis a blessed day indeed. And so is every day! Thank you again so much for your support! I do truly hope this update can somehow add to your blessings! Hehee, tootles and God bless ya!

**Jewely2951**- Hehee, this chapter sorta went into why Ayumu came back, but don't worry! Next chapter will go more into the 'how'. MWAHAHHAA! Oh, yes, you'll get your angst. Be on guard so you don't go into angst overload. The farther into the story I go, the more angst will crawl into it. Oi! I think I've already said too much! Just watch the Spiral Fanfic Archive...and watch closely... As far as Kanone and the Hunters go, I can't tell ya. -evil laugh- Looks like you'll just have to wait and see. Tootles! God bless ya!

**Sony89**- Well I must admit that the reviews do urge me on so. And I would keep writing even if I didn't get any! Yes, it is strange that Ayumu has returned so abruptly, and we shall find out more next chapter, yes we shall! I just hope that this chapter didn't make anyone fall out of their chairs and roll down the stairs and break a bone or something...then I would feel HUGELY guilty. And that would not be good, nope nope. Looking forward to the final chapter, tootles and God bless ya!

**ConfusedJelly**- I added a tad more for a reunion-type thing in the beginning just for you! Thank you so muchness for your continuous reviews and 'great as always'! They are always encouraging, thank yous! Here's to Chapter 9 and hopefully looking forward to Chapter 10! Tootles! God bless ya!

**Little Minamino**- How about this direction? Or that one? Or that one over there! Hehee, couldn't help myself. I will try my best to keep up good work! Hopefully my brain will not die completely on the way! God bless you and see you on the other side! So-to-speak.

**Sicilian Maiden**- Ello ello, me ol' chum! Heheheeeee did you see this one coming? Flynn can be a difficult character to figure out sometimes. He reminds me of Hiyono in a way, but he's different...Anywho, yes! Ayumu has returned! Or...has he? Where has he gone? I'm just sitting here hoping not to be kidnapped by ninjas and gagged and strangled in my sleep by angry readers!! Man, writing these things is starting to get me a little paranoid...Oo! Another AyuHiyo Kiss please! -Waits like a hungry baby bird- Oh I do so love your reviews! Loves and huggles! Tootles! God bless ya hun! Buh-byes Sici-chan!

**El Taco**- Well, here! Have some more tacos! Mwahahaa! Okay, maybe not too much. Anywho, Thankies again for your ever-present reviews! I will Rock on, indeed! And you must Rock on as well, yesyes! Asta-la buhbyes! God bless you!

**A Lonely Night Rain**- HIIIIIII!! Sorry, it's what happens to reviewers I haven't seen before. AWWWW! Thank you SOO much for the uber-awesome review! I put in that little part about cleaning up the mess just so you could have a good night's sleep knowing that it got cleaned up! That would bug me too...Anywho, thankies again! I do so look forward to another review! I do indeed! Tootles until next time, Amaya/Usagi-chan! God bless ya!

**xoxBlackCatxox**- Ello!! Aww thank you so much! I hope you'll keep reading! I have big plans, yesyes I do. Thank you so much for your review and support! Tootles and God bless you!

**Anyone ready for a preview? Right now I'm debating on whether to give one or leave all of you completely hanging...Okay, I'll give. After all, not giving one sounds oddly similar to signing a contract that ensures my untimely death. And so! Behold the preview for the final chapter of Kiss the Cook!**

**PREVIEW: **In this final chapter, a dumbfounded Hiyono must comb the entire fair in search of the mysterious missing detective/cook. With the help of Flynn, Jack, and Destrier, Hiyono goes in search of the missing Ayumu Narumi, hoping to find him as he tries to sort out his thoughts. During her search, she finds out a few things not only about herself, but about something that proves to be much bigger than she ever thought it was.

**One last thing.**

**Watch the Spiral Fanfiction Archive. Watch it closely after the final chapter of Kiss the Cook comes out. Watch it very closely...((hint))**

**With that said, Tootles and God bless ya everybody! I'll be prayin' for all of ya!**


	10. The Finale

**TADA! The kick-off of my Christmas Gift Fic Bonanza! Yeah, I know. I'm so awful. I finally got it done in time for Christmas! I'm pretty sure apologies don't quite suffice here, so I'm hoping that this last chapter will help… Read on, my loves!**

"Hiyono?"

Hiyono didn't answer. Her conscious never even heard. It was like it was so muffled and far away. She vaguely recognized that Flynn had left the tent to find Ayumu, followed by all the disappointed people in the audience that were no longer interested. Destrier had stayed to try to comfort Hiyono, who still couldn't seem to shake herself into reality. So far, his attempts at comforting her had fallen on temporarily deaf ears.

There weren't words to explain how she felt. She was confounded, humiliated, and downright confused. She couldn't even muster up enough brain matter to blush in embarrassment.

Then that voice finally began to whisper it, to imprint it on her mind. He rejected her. He didn't want her. He didn't even care at all what she had gone through. Quickly, she shook it off like an uninvited insect. Narumi-san had to have a reason. It was more than obvious. He hated crowds. He hated showing anyone what was in his heart. The only thing he hated more than that was showing his true feelings in front of a crowd.

She still had to be there. He still needed her. He wanted to protect her, even though he probably wouldn't admit it. His voice still rang out in her mind, _"Do you want me to walk you home?"_

"Hiyono?"

Her eyes shot over to the bright-eyed young man still trying his best to bring a smile to her face. A spark lit up in his eyes when she looked at him, "Would you like to go on some rides, ya know, until Flynn finds Narumi?"

A slight absent smile crossed her face, "Sure."

Even after Destrier was so thoughtful to buy tickets for her to go on rides, she still couldn't seem to get herself out of this boxed daze she had fallen into. Her smile was a ghost of what it once was, but she couldn't let anyone know what she was feeling.

Destrier gave her a curious stare. Everyone that passed by them that had seen the competition either laughed at her, gave her sad glances, or began whispering to each other. Yet, she acted like she never heard any of it.

---

_"You were expecting me, weren't you?"_

_"It's so beautiful..."_

_"Nighty night, Narumi-san."_

---

Destrier had a terrible time trying to figure out what ride to take Hiyono on. She seemed like she needed something slow, but the only thing slower than whiplash speed was the Ferris Wheel and, knowing Hiyono, she would spend the entire ride looking for Ayumu.

He wasn't sure what else to do. Everything he looked at would either not be a good idea or it would remind her of Ayumu. That's the last thing she needed.

Finally, he sighed, "Would you like to ride the Twister?"

Hiyono glanced over at him with a dazed expression on her face, "Huh?"

_"Good. I'll see you there."_

Destrier repeated, a concerned look on his face, "Would ya like to ride the Twister?"

Hiyono's lips curled into an empty crooked smile, "Okay, why not?"

---

"What's the matter, Flynn?" Jack asked, halting the horse he had been leading around the small ring. Flynn stopped, out of breath from running, "Hiyono-chan...the competition..."

Jack called another stable-hand over to take the horse, then exited the ring to walk over to Flynn. Jack wrinkled his eyebrows, "What happened?"

Flynn took a couple deep breaths and continued, the distressed expression still on his face, "The competition...it was..."

Jack rolled his eyes and prompted, "It was what?! Talk to me!"

Flynn's labored breaths slowed, "Hiyono's in trouble...and so are we. We have ta...find Narumi. The competition was rigged."

---

The Twister wasn't the best idea, but it got Hiyono's mind off of a certain detective for a little while. The Zipper, Salt and Pepper Shaker, and the Orbiter probably also weren't the best idea, at least she hadn't eaten anything before that. Normally, Hiyono wouldn't have had a problem at all. She would actually have wanted to go on all of them, but there was something that threw her off her norm and set everything off balance.

It was like straight out rejection. Nothing she could do would do anything. For so long she felt that they were made to be there, for each other. It always felt so natural, like there were invisible ties connecting the both of them, as if the shoelaces of her heart were tangled up in his. However, as soon as he said those earth-shattering words, those ties were brutally severed.

Man, since when was anything in her life as clean and simple and romantic as all that? No, she had to swallow her feelings and toughen up. She couldn't deal with it anymore. She had to push him out of her life forever. She had to let him go.

_"Narumi-san never tells me anything!"_

"Hiyono?"

She shook her head out of her thoughts and glanced back at her young escort. He stared at her with a worried expression on his face. Hiyono put on a smile and bit her lip, then pointed, "What about the Ferris Wheel, Destrier-san?"

Destrier, confused, couldn't come up with something to say as the caramel-haired reporter dragged him off towards the Ferris Wheel.

_"Since when has it been in my best interest to answer your questions?"_

---

"Flynn, you're positive?"

Flynn growled impatiently, "Positive as my broken rib, Jack!"

Jack thoughtfully rubbed his temple, "That means, they're after Hiyono!"

The blond tapped his boot on the ground rapidly, "Don'tcha think I've thoughta that?!"

After a couple moments, Flynn stood abruptly from his seat on a haybale, "I'm going after them."

His companion grabbed him by the shoulder, "Are you crazy? If we don't have a plan, then we're walking blindly into a death trap."

Flynn hardened his stare, "Narumi an' Hiyono might be dyin' as we sit here twiddlin' our thumbs."

Jack sighed, "I know ya want to save them, I want to save them too, but this is ridiculous! By going out there, you're sacrificing all of us, and-"

Flynn turned, "I'm only sacrificing myself, mate. You have to focus on finding our friends."

Flynn twisted to catch eye contact with Jack one more time. They nodded, and Flynn turned and sprinted in the other direction.

---

_"Narumi-san, look! Look! Isn't it amazing?"_

It drove him mad. No matter what he did or started thinking about, it reminded him of her. It was awful. He couldn't quell the rolling grinding feeling in his stomach, especially when he thought of the look on her face before he walked away.

Why couldn't he stop thinking about her? It made him want to take a nap in the middle of the road or stand in front of a raging bull. He was convinced that he was nearing the point of insanity.

_"Your grip is really tight, Narumi-san."_

An uncomfortable shiver shot up his spine. Her voice echoed in his ears. He just wished that he couldn't remember anything she said, then maybe it wouldn't come back to haunt him. Maybe just once he could have actually not listened to her, instead of just pretending not to. Maybe then he would have had the courage to get on that plane and not turn around at the last second.

_"Ticket, sir?"_

_He barely heard anything they were saying. He was thinking about the Blade Children again. He was hauling his bag to the luggage drop-off when it hit him. He could almost imagine Hiyono reading the note he left. He remembered every word he had written._

_-I'm sorry...I've gone to finish all the Blade Children junk. You can't be involved, it's too dangerous. I'm sorry Hiyono...-_

_The sound of another voice suddenly rang in his ear, one that he hadn't listened to in a long time._

_"I'm sorry, I've gone to pursue the mystery of the Blade Children. Please tell Madoka."_

_His breath hitched in his throat. For so long, he had compared himself with his brother. Finally, he had broken himself of that._

_Now, he was about to do exactly what his brother had done. He was about to turn around and leave what he cared about the most and never look back. Ayumu had seen firsthand what his brother's departure had done to his sister-in-law, and yet she never gave up looking for him. Just like Hiyono would do. He was about to become his brother and leave what mattered most to him. He still didn't know why exactly his brother left. Yet, even though Ayumu had left because he was afraid for her safety, it still felt wrong._

_If he went through with this, he would be exactly like the brother that he was struggling to leave behind._

_He would never admit all this, but he never even got passed the luggage drop._

---

As Flynn ran, he knew that the Blade Children weren't the target here. They wanted Ayumu, and they would stop at nothing to destroy the "last hope" of the Blade Children. Truthfully, they never knew that Flynn and the others existed, and this was why exposing them would put all of his friends in trouble. Instead, there was something else he could do.

The blond sprinted through the crowd, trying to stay out of everyone's way as a plan began to develop in his head.

---

_"Narumi-san? Are you alright?"_

"Destrier-san? Are you okay?"

The boy glanced at her, then looked away, his eyes nervously darting around him.

Hiyono wrinkled her eyebrows, "What's--"

"C'mon, let's go get some more tickets." the stable-hand cut her off, tugging her in the direction of the ticket stand. Something was wrong. No matter what happened, he had to keep Hiyono safe. Somehow he had a feeling that whatever was going on had something to do with her.

She wished they would tell her what was going on. All she knew is that everyone started acting strange after the cooking contest.

_"Ya know, this stuff doesn't even come close to your cooking, Narumi-san."_

Hiyono shook her head vigorously, trying to get the image of Ayumu's deadpan look out of her head.

_"At least this way you're not stealing my lunch."_

His voice rang in her ears again. No matter how long she tried not to think about him, his voice kept ringing like an obnoxious doorbell in an old cave.

Destrier eyed everyone suspiciously. Suddenly, anyone could be the enemy. And Hiyono was the only one worth protecting. He glanced up at her spaced expression. The little brunet took her hand and pulled her deeper into the mass of people. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist. As they neared a lone ticket booth, it took her a few seconds to realize what the cold, round metal object pressed against her head was.

_"Good night, Hiyono."_

---

_"I found us a place to stay, Narumi-san!"_

Every single place he looked, he couldn't feel more nauseous. Whether it was the oblivious happy people everywhere or the constant nagging at the back of his brain, he couldn't tell.

He had already rejected her, why couldn't he just force himself to walk out and never look back?

_"Besides, do we have a choice?"_

Did he have a choice? Oh yeah. He had a choice. He chose to leave her there. Now all he had to do was never look back. He would just go home and live his normal life. But...what about everyone that knew her? A missing person's report would be written and he would be the prime suspect and he would be put in jail for what he had done if he simply told the truth. She had family. She had people that cared about her.

She had forsaken it all just to come with him.

_"So why'd ya and little Hiyono-chan come alone? Her 'rents know ya got 'er in another country alone with you?"_

Kanone. The whole reason he had taken her in the first place was because of Kanone. Something was definitely wrong.

---

Jack growled. This wasn't his day. Running around, danger, finding needles in haystacks and getting no prize. Nope, not his day.

---

_"What are you doing out here in your pajamas in the middle of the night, stupid girl?"_

Hiyono groaned. Why on earth did her head hurt so bad? Slowly opening her eyes, she could hardly see. Everything was dark and seemed to spin in circles. She felt something tying her hands behind her back, digging into her wrists.

"You awake?" a gentle voice whispered.

Hiyono suddenly acknowledged it. She was tied to something. She turned her head as far as she could towards the voice, "Destrier?"

"How are ya feeling?" he whispered.

"I'm sorry." Hiyono heard herself mutter. Destrier closed his eyes, "It's not your fault, Miss Hiyono. I should have been able to protect you. I should have seen him coming."

"Please don't blame yourself, Destrier-san." she paused and sighed, "Where are we anyway?"

The boy sighed, "We're tied to the largest batch of fireworks for the fireworks display finale."

Hiyono stared for a moment before she realized, "WHAT!? Why?! By who?!"

Destrier glowered at the ground, "Who else?"

She was silent for a moment, then gave an aggravated sigh, "Not them again. Why can't they leave anyone alone? We're not even doing anything wrong!"

"I don't know, Miss Hiyono. I just don' know." he closed his eyes.

---

_"I'm watching the stars..."_

Ayumu could hardly stare at the food any longer. It was bad enough he could hardly stand to look at the "pathetic excuse for a meal". Now he couldn't even bring himself to think about hunger any more. He sighed and slipped further back into the dark corner at which he had planted himself.

_"Narumi-san? Why did you bring me here? Just wondering...Are you...afraid?"_

Why was he still here? He couldn't bring himself to leave her like his brother had left, yet he hated her for making him feel this way. It was just too dangerous, and she could never stay out of trouble.

_"Narumi-san, it's alright to be afraid sometimes. Pretending that it doesn't exist just makes it worse."_

Suddenly, he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. Ayumu whipped around to find Jack leaning over and motioning for silence. Ayumu's expression turned into a glare of full-blooded irritation. He began to stand up and leave when Jack's grip on his shoulder tightened, "Look, you sad excuse for a hero, I know that all you want to do is sit here and sulk until the cows come home, but Hiyono's in trouble."

Ayumu felt his chest tighten slightly. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

_"To be honest, I was afraid of coming out of the country like this, but I knew you'd protect me. So I'd have nothing to worry about, even if we came having no idea what we were going to do or how we were going to live. I would go into the arms of death as long as you'd come with me."_

---

_"Now sing."_

_"Be quiet. No talking. Just sing." _

Hiyono sighed and stared at the ceiling of the dark trailer that they were kept in. Slowly, she began to hum a small tune. Destrier glanced back at her as best as he could, staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

_"That weird song that I hate so much."_

With that, Hiyono sighed and opened her mouth, beginning to sing softly.

"Outside the window...

Kira kira kirari

"A shooting star streaks...

Kira kira kirari

The moon glows brightly

Yura yura yurari

"Napping so peacefully

In the ocean of the stars

"Then somebody came along

And waved their special magic wand

Spreading the magic of love to all..."

A quirk of a reassuring smile appeared on Destrier's face, "That was beautiful, Hiyono."

Hiyono closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows. She would have to think like Narumi-san if she was going to get out of this mess.

"Destrier-san, do you have a knife?"

---

_"You're here because of Hiyono. She was in danger."_

Ayumu felt his lungs heaving as he ran, his legs starting to ache in pain. He growled, "You have no idea how many questions you're going to answer when this is over."

Jack shrugged, "Personally, I really don' care right now. Just keep goin'. We have ta get in contact with Destrier. We had arranged to meet him at the Ferris Wheel with Hiyono at 9:30."

Ayumu sneared, "I knew we should never have trusted any of you."

The older brunet rolled his eyes, "Look, I don' care if ya trust me or not. They may already have them by now."

_"She's happiest when she's with you."_

---

The young reporter gave a heavy sigh of irritation, "Any more ideas, Destrier-san? So far, nothing has worked, not even the Swiss Army Knife. I thought we were getting close with the nail file though."

Destrier sighed, "It's no use. We can't get out of here."

Hiyono frowned, glancing at all the failed tools scattered on the floor, "From what Flynn-san told me, you should have a lot more faith than that. Don't worry. We're going to be fine, I know it."

Suddenly, the door to the trailer slammed open, and two looming shadows chuckled from the doorway. The skinny one hissed, "Well, if it ain't Narumi's little plaything and the orphan stable boy."

Hiyono could almost hear the smirk in the man's voice as he continued, "Tell me, Destrier, have your parents been to any butcher shops lately? I heard the service last time was a bit...choppy."

The boy stiffened, his eyes wide as he started shaking. Destrier gave an angry roar and struggled wildly against his bindings, trying to ignore the burning wet sensation around his eyelids.

Hiyono sat there, almost frozen. Finally, the snarky Hunter addressed her, "How about you, missy? You honestly think that your little Narumi would come and save you? Don't you remember? He completely abandoned you."

_Why do I let you get me into these things?! What's your problem? How could you do this? Why do you constantly get me into these messes? Why do I let you hang around all the time?"_

The young girl shook her head, staring the big man in the face, "Narumi-san would never abandon me."

Both men laughed this time before the skinny one continued, trying extremely hard not to chuckle, "So sad. She still thinks he actually cares about her...Little does she know...He never needed her and he would never actually want her. That's why he left her here...to die."

_"You don't honestly think I mean that, do you? What on Earth would I need a stupid airhead for?"_

_"Why can't you just disappear?!"_

Hiyono's eyes widened. Maybe he really didn't want anything to do with her. Maybe he wouldn't come to save her. Scrambling for any thoughts or comebacks at all, she stuttered, "W-Well, y-you won't get away with this. The fair staff will find out and you'll be history."

Suddenly the other man stepped into the light. He grinned, "That is, unless the head of the fair staff is the one pullin' the strings." he chortled in a low, husky voice.

Destrier muttered in surprise, "George Lexington?!"

Hiyono's eyes grew large, "The announcer...of the..."

The big man gave a loud guffaw and snarled, "Yes...the host of the Kiss the Cook competition as well as the manager of the entire event."

Destrier wrinkled his eyebrows, "So, you're a Hunter too..."

Lexington laughed again, "Of course. Though, as ya know, I'm not interested in killin' ya Blade Children. I'm interested in destroying their only hope."

Hiyono clenched her fists, "Narumi-san..." she whispered.

_"I think he's very protective of you. Hiyono, you're his support, aren't you?"_

---

_"You are afraid, aren't you, Narumi-san?"_

Ayumu leaned over, trying to catch his breath. Jack sighed heavily, glancing at his pocketwatch and looking around nervously, "They shoulda been here by now. We'll wait ten more minutes and if they don' show up, we'll know somethin's wrong."

The young detective eyed his companion suspiciously, "So how do I know that you freaks didn't take her with the intentions of killing her yourself?"

Jack rolled his eyes, "Look, Narumi. If we had wanted to kill Hiyono we would have done so a long time ago."

Ayumu narrowed his eyes, staring at Jack's face in realization, "You're all Blade Children..."

The cowboy sighed, "Bingo, Sherlock. Flynn, Destrier and I are Blade Children. For our entire lives we've been living in secret seclusion from the Hunters, until now. They're after you, Narumi. They're convinced that all of the Blade Children's lives depend on you. That's why they're after Hiyono. But you probably already know most of that."

Ayumu ran his hands through his hair, muttering, "I'm the one that got her into this. I should never have gotten her involved. Then, maybe she would have..."

"Get a grip, Narumi! We don't even know where they are. And sitting here is not gonna do anything. We have to go after them."

"No!" Ayumu retorted. He sighed, "I gotta find her on my own. They want me. They want to get to me. If you want to stay alive, it'd be best if you stayed out of it."

Jack grabbed Ayumu by the shoulder, "No way, kid. If Hiyono's captured, then so is Destrier. He's the gentlemanly type, he would never leave her to fend for herself. And Dest is like my brother. Plus, Hiyono's my friend too."

---

"We have more hope than you could ever imagine, you pompous windbag!" the scruffy little stable-hand growled.

At once, the smaller Hunter seized the blue-eyed boy by the collar, spat in his face, and slapped him across the cheek.

"Destrier-san!"

The Hunter then let the boy fall back to the ground as Lexington gave a chuckle, "Boy, do we have plans for you." he shifted his gaze to Hiyono, "As fer the girl, you will be the center of our devious plot. Heh, we'll leave ya two alone with yer final thoughts."

With that, they left the trailer, slamming the heavy door behind them.

After a while in the dark silence, Hiyono sighed, "What do you think they're going to do to us?"

Destrier turned his head to stare at the wooden floor, dusted with ashes and smelling of smoke, "They'll probably set us out on the field and wait until it's time for the fireworks, then set us off with the final blast."

Hiyono leaned her head back on the large fireworks rocket they were attached to, "There has to be another way..."

The boy gave a slight smile, "Don't worry, Hiyono. I'm convinced that we're not going to die here."

"How?"

"Why did Narumi come back?"

"Um..."

"What do you have to do with the Hunters' plan?"

"Uh..."

"Now, whose gonna save you?"

Hiyono's stared at the floor before closing her eyes.

_"Rutherford thought that this Narumi could save us. I know he's a great kid, but I also know that there ain't no human that could save us. If he really came ta save us, who would save him? And if they told me that it was you, then who's gonna save you, Hiyono-chan?"_

Hiyono quirked a smile, "So he...WAS afraid. He was afraid...because of me..."

_"That's probably WHY he left, Hiyono-chan. He cares for ya and he doesn't want ya to get hurt. He knows that the Hunters, among others, will come after ya in an attempt to get at him. So he prolly wanted ya as far away from himself as possible ta keep ya safe."_

Her eyes darted back and forth, "Maybe...maybe Narumi-san will come for us after all..."

Destrier smiled, "There ya go, Darlin'. And...even if he doesn't...we're gonna be fine."

"So, how come the Hunters took our cell phones, but not the nail file, the pens, the scissors, or the Swiss Army Knife?" she inquired.

Her companion shrugged, "They want to instill a sense of hope in us before pittin' us into ultimate despair."

Hiyono raised her eyebrows, "Sheesh, that's dark. So, how are we going to get out of here?"

---

_"Don't worry, Narumi-san. I'll be here all the way."_

"Ugh, stupid girl, where are you?" the detective muttered.

Jack sighed, "Okay, so the Hunters wouldn't want to make a scene or draw attention to themselves. Their goal is probably to lure you somewhere where it would be easy to kill us all and not be noticed, using Hiyono as bait."

"So, basically we're walking into a trap set so they can kill me and destroy the Blade Children once and for all."

"Exactly."

"Now, where would be the easiest place to disguise a murder in a county fair and leave no evidence?" Ayumu's eyebrows furrowed, caught in pensive contemplation.

Suddenly, the detective's eyes widened in concern, his voice laced with some mix of anger, urgency, and no emotion at all, "When does the fireworks display start?"

Jack took a quick look at his pocket-watch, "It starts at 10:00, that's about twenty minutes, why?"

It didn't take long for Jack to realize what was going on, "The fireworks trailer at the other end of the fairgrounds, we gotta hurry."

Both males darted towards the outskirts of the fair, with Jack leading the way as they tried to maneuver through the crowd.

---

The door to the trailer slammed open as the thinner Hunter burst through with determined, heavy footsteps. All at once, he ripped Destrier away from his bindings, picked him up by the collar and threw him against the back wall.

Hiyono gave a small cry when she heard the awful thud of his body against the wall followed by the sickening crunch when he hit the ground, crashing into a pile of small rockets.

"Destrier-san? Destrier-san?! Destrier-san, answer me!"

She saw and heard no movement from her friend as the Hunter and a few other large men stepped through the trailer and started picking up the fireworks and taking them outside. Finally, a tall, muscular man came through the doors and picked up Hiyono as well as the rocket she was tied to and throwing them over his shoulder.

The little newshound kicked and struggled and bit as hard as she could, but the man only tightened his grip on her.

As they finished unloading the trailer, Lexington and the other Hunter stood there snickering as they ordered the other men to close the trailer door, "Little does the boy know that he won't wake up from that nap. The bomb in the truck is set to go off in less than fifteen minutes." the thin one laughed.

Lexington slapped his partner on the shoulder jokingly, "And with some of the fireworks still in there, folks won't know the difference when it goes off at the same time as the finale."

Lexington then turned and gave more orders to his workers, "Set up the fireworks as usual in the field and wait for further orders."

He then walked up to the trailer and gave orders to the man in the driver's seat, "Take this hunk a' junk behind the events tent, there won't be any more people there tonight."

The driver inquired, his grin almost as crooked as his rotting teeth, "Past the games, sir?"

Lexington rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically, "No, ya doofus, past the Sugarplum Fairy dumpling stand. Of course past the games!"

The driver started the engine and drove off. Hiyono could hardly hear it. Her head was spinning; she could barely tell what was going on anymore. She expected she should be used to this by now. If she lived through this, maybe Narumi would chastise her later.

---

"I wish I would never have brought her here."

"No time for regrets, Narumi. We have to find the field!"

Ayumu lowered his eyebrows, "Field? You said that the fireworks were in a trailer."

Jack growled slightly, "They were, but we only have about ten minutes left before the show starts. They would have set up all the fireworks already."

Ayumu clenched his teeth, "They're planning on sending her up on the biggest one."

_"Oh...Narumi-san."_

---

Flynn knew that he had to hurry. He would have to apologize later. The blonde had quickly come up with some excuse to dismiss the games announcer from the shift. Now he held the microphone in his hands. If this was going to work, he would have to act fast.

---

The driver whistled nervously as he slowly drove through the aisle. It was bad enough that trucks weren't allowed behind the event tent, but trying to maneuver in the aisle while carrying a bomb was not exactly the most peaceful job in the world. Suddenly, he heard a loud announcement from the games section, the very section that he was about to pass, "Ladies and Gentlemen, all game tents will be hosting a giveaway for the next ten minutes. If you get here within ten minutes, prizes are guaranteed."

At that moment, the driver knew that his job had just gotten a whole lot worse.

---

_"Hiyono-chan, yer in real danger right now. I don' know if ya realize it, but anyone who wants to destroy the Blade Children are gonna go after their only hope, which, apparently, is Ayumu Narumi. Believe it or not, the easiest way to destroy Ayumu...is to go after you."_

_"Believe it or not, yer one of the only ones he cares about."_

Hiyono couldn't help but stare at the grass as they secured the rocket to the ground. Maybe her Narumi wouldn't come for her after all. Maybe Flynn didn't really mean what he said. Maybe he was just trying to make her feel better. But she had to hang on, she just had to hang on for him a little bit longer.

_"Hiyono."_

It was then that she heard a deep chuckle. George Lexington emerged, leaning on a cane that he did not need except that he thought it would make him seem more civilized, "So, little Hiyono. I bet you still think that yer strong, handsome prince will come gallopin' in ta save you, don'tcha?"

Hiyono glared at him and didn't answer, so he continued, "Well, that's such a pity, because just as he comes ridin' in, that's when you all will be blown ta smithereens. Or ta the moon, whichever comes first."

She rolled her eyes, "So, I guess this is the part where you tell me exactly how your diabolical plan works, am I right?"

"Good girl." he snickered as he started to pace back and forth in front of her, "It's simple. I have another bomb rigged to the rocket, so if the rocket doesn't kill you, the bomb will. And don't even bother tried to untie yerself. The bomb is actually the exact thing that ties you there. The only way ta get untied is to diffuse the bomb, but you can't really do that with yer hands tied back like that, can you? So, right on time, young Narumi will arrive and try to save you, and as he tries to diffuse the bomb, it will be too late."

Hiyono pursed her lips, "How do you know he'll come try to save me?"

George Lexington let out a roar of laughter, "Ah, my dear, I find that he won't be able ta resist."

---

Flynn jumped back over the games counter before the truck even stopped. The swarm of people had created a roadblock, just as he had planned. He hoped that the rest of the games staff could keep the crowd long enough for him to accomplish his goal. He still wasn't sure what he would find, but he had to try. Pushing through the crowd, he finally reached the back of the truck. He grasped the handle anxiously, trying to unbolt the lock.

The bolt slid back slowly, making an obnoxious screech. Inside, he was dismayed to discover that a large thug sat in the back of the trailer, right next to the heap of an unconscious Destrier. The thug stood up and lumbered toward Flynn, clearly intending to fight. Flynn glanced around, eagerly trying to find something he could use to protect himself.

---

It had been a while since the Hunters had left Hiyono alone on the field. She could still hear them nearby, meaning that it wouldn't be long until it was her turn. True, she hoped Ayumu would find her, but deep inside she knew that either way she was going to die. She never told him. She never said what she really thought. She never knew if he felt anything.

Now, even if he did come to save her, then it would be entirely her fault that they both were going to die. If he didn't, then she would have to face the fact that she was meant to die there. There was so much she didn't get to do. Why did it have to be now?

_"I'm sorry...I've gone to finish all the Blade Children junk. You can't be involved, it's too dangerous. I'm sorry Hiyono..."_

She closed her eyes, "Narumi-san, I'm sorry...Please, don't come after me."

---

Unable to find something to use, Flynn crouched and quickly grabbed a handful of ash from the floor of the trailer. The thug, meanwhile, towered over him, ready to throw a battering ram-sized punch. Flynn haphazardly flung the handful of ash into the man's face, "Sorry!"

While the man roared and stumbled for a few seconds, Flynn rushed to the back of the trailer and picked up Destrier's limp body, throwing the boy over his shoulder as he rushed outside the trailer.

Rushing to follow, the large man stepped out of the trailer and into the mass of moving people. Flynn rushed to the games counter and set Destrier down on it, "Please take care of him until I come back." he instructed the girl behind the counter. With that, Flynn darted back to the truck and opened the driver's door. The stressed man in the driver's seat looked over just in time to see Flynn's foot coming quickly towards his face. The next thing he knew he was flying out the passenger side.

By now, the crowd had slowed and began to dissipate. Flynn gritted his teeth and laid on the horn as the people scattered. When a path had cleared, he slammed on the gas as the trailer's wheels squealed, trying to get traction.

---

_"Na-Narumi-san?"_

"How many more minutes?" Ayumu demanded anxiously.

"About six. Chill Narumi, we'll make it. We gotta." Jack answered, staring at his watch as they ran.

---

Flynn had never experienced something so stressful. After just missing tents and stands and people, he had finally gotten to the outskirts of the fair. He had to get farther away. Finally, he spotted a large tree a few hundred yards away. Perfect.

He bit his lip and closed his eyes for a moment, uttering a silent prayer as he hit the gas.

---

The sky roared with a burst of flames and color. Hiyono jerked slightly, watching the display in horror. The Hunters eyed it suspiciously before they shrugged. Suddenly, Hiyono heard a disturbing beeping sound.

George Lexington approached her once again and laughed, "Ah, right on time. Hear that? I thought it'd comfort ya in yer last five minutes of life."

Hiyono glanced down at her bindings. Lexington gave a low chuckle, "That's right. The timer on the bomb. Yer rocket will go off in precisely four minutes and thirty-six seconds. I hope ya wanted the free booking on the next flight to Kingdom Come."

Hiyono paled, that beeping sound ringing in her ears, drowning out the sounds of any other voice inside her.

---

_"Then why did he leave me here alone?"_

_"Narumi-san...did you really want to keep me away?"_

Hiyono heard the people whoop and cheer in excitement when the bright lights lit up the sky. She couldn't believe that this could be the end. That just didn't seem right. There had to be another way. She couldn't die now. And neither could Ayumu.

The young reporter opened her mouth and tried to sing, but the words and the tune wouldn't form to her lips.

Shpewwww....BOOM! The sound of a nearby fireworks rocket shot off. It wasn't long now.

At last, when everything had settled, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and as another rocket went off, she screamed as loud as she possibly could.

"NARUMI-SAANN!!!"

"Stupid girl."

She gasped sharply when she felt a hand over her mouth. Suddenly, she turned to face the one who had closed his hand on her face. She knew that smell. Ayumu Narumi.

He held a finger to his lips and stared at her sternly.

His determined eyes delved through hers. He put his hand on her shoulder and tightened his grip when he felt her shaking under his grasp. When he unclasped his hand from her mouth, her lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. Of course, their moment of shock was interrupted by the obnoxious alarms of the bomb.

_"I really missed you, Narumi-san."_

Suddenly, Ayumu's attention turned strictly to the little device securing Hiyono. His eyebrows furrowed into 'twinkles' again as he studied the bomb.

_"But I knew that Narumi-san wouldn't stay away. I knew...that he wouldn't leave me behind."_

Hiyono's voice finally stuttered back into existence, "N-Narumi-san! You h-have to get out of here!" she nearly choked.

"No." he deadpanned.

"It's going to kill you too!" her voice cracked.

Ayumu suddenly looked at her with a slightly irritated yet determined expression, "I have to try!"

_"Hn. How'd you know that? How'd you know that I wouldn't just take off and never come back?"_

Hiyono frowned, "I won't be responsible for both our deaths! You have to save yourself!"

Suddenly, the dark-haired detective stared her in the eyes with an expression she hardly ever saw, his voice slightly raised into a concerned yet concentrated exclamation, "I didn't come all the way back here just to lose you again!"

_"Because, Narumi-san is useless without me."_

Once again, she saw the reason why he had taken her, why he had left, why he came back and why he came to save her at this very moment. Both could hear their breaths above the noises of the bomb. He eyed her closely, studying the every movements of her eyes. With a slight growl, he gritted his teeth and jerked his head away from her.

"N-Narumi-san?" she stared blankly, biting her lip.

"There's only a minute and fifteen seconds left. Let me focus." he huffed.

"Narumi-san, please. I need to know you'll make it alive."

At that moment, he gave her the look that demanded her to spill her guts immediately, "So what's going on?"

She sighed and began to explain, squirming under his gaze, "The rope-things they tied me with are directly attached to the bomb. The bomb is set to go off at the exact same time this fireworks rocket is supposed to launch. I think it's programmed or something, I don't know. But even if the bomb is diffused, the rocket will still go off."

Hiyono paused for a moment, until Ayumu's unwavering stoic stare spurred her to go on.

"The Hunters, led by George Lexington, the guy who-"

"I knew that guy was no good." the chocolate-haired male muttered.

Hiyono could feel his anger building as he nearly sneered in his classic emotionless deductions, "That conceited bucket of lard probably doesn't even know how to tie his shoes. He had to pick something easy that no one would know but him. Something that he had control of."

He pondered for a moment, his demeanor once again becoming pensive and silent.

"Hey. What were the time limits for each round of the competition in order?" he demanded apathetically, his voice returning to its normal irritated drone.

Hiyono sighed and bit her lip, "Um...thirty minutes, an hour, another hour, fifteen minutes. Why do you ask, Narumi-san?"

Ayumu stared at her for a few minutes in the way that she knew he had just called her stupid. Finally, she thought for a while and all the gears seemed to click into place, "The times! The only thing that Lexington could change without anyone noticing!"

"Narumi-san? What...what made you come back?"

"The code for this thing is three digits long. What is the sum of all the numbers in minutes?" he continued, as if to test her while their lives were on the line.

"165." she answered with but a moment's hesitation.

This was it. She may never get to have another chance. She never knew how close death could be.

As he began to punch buttons on the bomb's keypad, Hiyono sighed, "Narumi-san, if we die...I uh...I want you to kno-"

"Don't. I don't want to hear your stupidity right now." he cut her off abruptly.

_"You said it yourself, didn't you? I'm useless without you."_

She had half a mind to pout, but the sounds of the bomb were getting louder. Hiyono's golden brown eyes followed his every move. By the expression on his face, suddenly she remembered. She remembered how much faith she had in him. They had to be okay, they just had to.

10.

Ayumu struggled to dismantle the bomb, his hands beginning to work faster than she had ever seen before.

9.

The bomb dismantled with a pop. The beeping stopped, but now an eerie silence hung over as both heard the noises of fireworks exploding in the background.

8.

Ayumu tensed and stared at her, fully knowing that, as long as she was still tied to the rocket, she would...

_"You keep your filthy hands off her, you pathetic creep."_

7.

His expression darkened as he began to try to unwind the tangle of bindings around her.

6.

Hiyono looked at him painfully, her eyes nearly pleading with him.

His voice rose to an irritated snap, "No. Stop looking at me like that. Not after-"

5.

More shots of fireworks went off as the people at the fair cheered at the bursts of color. Ayumu never finished his sentence as he raced, trying to rip the cords from her hands and around her body.

4.

As soon as he loosened her enough to pull her out, he grabbed her wrist and yanked her from the ground, trying to drag her along as fast as he could.

3.

Hiyono could barely keep up. She felt her legs give out as she crashed to the ground. Ayumu instantly stopped, waiting for her to get up. When she struggled to get to her feet, the boy rushed to her and pulled her up, the fireworks thundering much closer than they would have liked.

2.

The reporter could almost feel her heart stop. She knew that they probably weren't far enough away and she couldn't seem to make herself go much further.

1.

BOOM!

The force of the blast knocked both teens to the ground.

After a few seconds, Hiyono finally got her breath back and panted breathlessly, wondering if she was still alive. However, from the taste of dirt in her mouth, she guessed that she was still here. Slowly she opened her eyes to find Ayumu laying flat on the dirt beside her. His chocolate hair was messy, his face and hands were covered in dirt, and his clothes were torn, but it was him. The slow, gentle rise and fall of his breathing soothed her enough to take his large hand in her small fingers.

He flinched and opened his eyes. Abruptly pulling his hand away from hers, he slowly sat up and stared at the sky as the finale of fireworks began.

Ayumu neither looked at her nor touched her nor spoke at all; he just sat there until he heard a small noise.

Hiyono gulped, trying to get rid of the knot in her throat. She then gave a sigh of relief. Her eyes traveled over herself, glaring at all the dirt and the ash and the grime and the grass stains that had manifested themselves all over her. She could hardly tell what color her legs were anymore.

Slowly, her eyes shifted to her partner, who sat silently a few feet away from her, staring into the distance with a blank expression. She swore that he was dirtier than she was. She could also see a couple smears of blood around his face, arms, and under the rip in the knee of his pants.

He put himself in danger to come for her. He put his neck on the line just to come rescue her. Again. He would never admit it, of course. He would just say something to the effect of having a guilty conscience on his way back to Japan.

Why had she not been there for him? Why did she have to be so much trouble? Why couldn't she support him like she was supposed to? Why couldn't she bring herself to smile...?

Ayumu glanced over to find Hiyono turned away from him, huddled with her head on her knees. After a moment, he heard the noise again, a sniffle, accompanied by the shake of her shoulders.

He sighed, "Hey."

When she didn't answer, he closed his eyes and hissed through his teeth, "Why are you..."

A whisper came to greet him, "I wasn't there for you. I was afraid. I was scared. I wanted Narumi-san to come for me, but I wanted him to stay away, because I didn't want him to die too. I thought that Narumi-san would not even want to come save me. I was scared that other people would get hurt. I was scared that I would hurt...Narumi-san. I was afraid that he would die...because of me."

"Shut up."

Her silence stopped as the soft sounds of tears began again.

"Don't cry." came his stern voice.

It made him nervous. All this time she was so strong. She had always been there. She had always waited for him. She even nearly let herself die for him. He was the one that was never there for her. He was the one that had left her alone, by herself, so many times. Yet, not once had he ever seen her cry like this. After all this, she was hurt and broken, and all he could do was sit there.

When she did not stop, he shifted anxiously and repeated, "I said don't cry."

With that, he grabbed her by the arm and whipped her around. Her face was red and her eyes were puffy and she still had the sad distorted expression on her face as her tears made stains down her cheeks. He couldn't stand to see her like this. He couldn't make her stop. He couldn't show her the truth.

She began sobbing softly, refusing to look at his face.

"Stop crying."

_"Kiss the cook! Kiss the cook! Kiss the cook!"_

He didn't know what else to do. Usually, he would just sit there and do nothing or give her what she wanted, but the honest, compassionate, weak expression on her face unraveled him piece by piece. She always had to be his strength, now she was weak. He could hardly stand it. He felt as weak as she did. This was the first time he ever saw her breaking.

Something in his chest began to burn, pumping like fire through his veins as he watched her. He couldn't watch anymore.

_"You should be free to kiss whoever you want, but I'm out of here."_

All of a sudden, he put his hand at the back of her neck and yanked her forward as he seized her lips in his own and the final blast of color boomed in the background. She gasped, her entire thought process completely destroyed.

_This is what I wanted the whole time, Narumi-san._

Slowly, he closed his eyes, put his hand to her face and brushed his fingertips against her cheek. Finally, Hiyono's eyes slipped closed as she melted into him. She leaned forward, her lips finally brushing gently against his own.

For once in his life, he didn't care that both of them were covered in dirt and mud and sharing germs in a quite intimate fashion.

As she responded, Ayumu unconsciously pulled her closer and massaged her lips deeply, his soft, gentle yet rough kiss a living paradox in itself. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed into his lips, initiating one last deep motion from him before he slowly pulled away, breathing heavily as he glared into her eyes.

Hiyono just sat there, completely flabbergasted and oblivious to everything around her. Ayumu guessed that there was a great amount of vacancy in her head once again.

The young Narumi sat back on the grass and stared at the sky, once again saying nothing.

After a long time of silence, Hiyono wrapped her arms around her knees and frowned, "Do you think the guys are all right?"

"Hn." her grouch of a companion grumbled.

_"Thank you for staying with me, Narumi-san."_

---

"Destrier, seriously, bud, this doesn't feel right without-"Jack exhaled.

"Hullo, gents! What'd I miss?" the figure in question plopped down beside them.

"Flynn?! I saw the explosion, how did you-" The older stablehand hissed.

"Ah, my friend, that'd be a secret." Flynn chuckled.

Flynn shifted his eyes to Jack, "So, how come you ain't with Narumi?"

Jack rolled his eyes, "Well, someone had ta take care of the Hunters' goons while you and Narumi were playing noble hero of self-sacrifice and honor." he mocked jokingly.

Flynn shook his head and changed the subject, "So what'd I miss? What's all the hububb?"

Jack sighed and rubbed his temples, "Please tell me you did not just say 'hubbub'."

The eldest finally sighed and glanced over Flynn's shoulder, "Narumi and Hiyono just smooched."

"What?!"

Destrier glanced over at Flynn deviously, holding his hand and waiting, "I believe that's ten bucks."

Flynn growled, "You can't tell me that was a real bet!"

The young boy smirked as Flynn folded his arms across his chest, "Hey Chum, we don't bet, you know that!"

Destrier raised his eyebrows, "You were the one that started it."

Jack put his finger to his lips, "Shush, you. They'll hear us."

He glanced past the bushes that they were hiding behind, the leaves shuffling gently at the movement. Flynn heaved a defeated sigh, resting his arms on his knees, "I still say ya cheated."

**So what'd ya think? Love? Hate?**

***Flynn's actions with the explosion are purely fiction for writing purposes. Do NOT try this!***

**Shoutouts:**

**InvisibleWords.:** I hope this last chapter makes you smile too. And despite my lateness I hope you remain a loyal fan/friend. This last chapter was probably the most difficult yet the most fun, I hope you enjoy!

**Little Minamino:** Hehee, thankies once again. "dagum it." I like that. I sincerely hope that this last chapter keeps you on the edge of your seat! The Cheeseball always loves your reviews.

**Prodigy Keyblade Wielder:** YAY! I hope the end has kept you absorbed as well. Again sorry for the extreme lateness. I have pulled my supposedly last trick out of my sleeve! No need to grumble any longer! Bwahahaa! Thankies, your reviews are a blessing to me.

**Beautifulsmile:** NO! Don't die! I'm sorry I'm so late! Please don't die! Yes! I'm back! Thank you again for awesome reviews! I hope to hear your thoughts on the ending. ; )

**El Taco:** Unfortunately nothing to satisfy hunger in the last chapter. Sigh. Instead, I've stuffed bunches of action and suspense and all that annoying good stuff into this finale. Thank you for you ever loyal support and reviews. Again, Rock on! May the f(L)OR(D)ce be with you! : P

**ayane04:** Thank you oh so much! I'm so glad to hear my poor rendition of a cooking competition with dishes I have no clue how to make came out well! Apologies for the severely late update. I hope this is exciting enough for you! Thanks again and I hope to "hear" your reaction to the ending.

**Sony89:** Thanks again, hehee. Yes, the ending to the last chapter was kinda sad and disappointing, even when writing it. I just hope that this makes up for it! I look forward to your reaction.

**nanamisakurachan:** Thank you very much. Sorry for the late update. Sometimes, Ayumu's attitude is kinda fun to write, especially now that I've been really getting the hang of it. Though, it still can't beat the enjoyment of writing suspense, cliffhangers, and a whole lot of cheese.

**kah-jeer-stin:** Oh my goodness, yes, the ending to the anime was as disappointing as a donut with no filling. They tell you a bunch more in the manga volumes, but I'm not sure if that's such a good thing either. To be honest, the ending to that seems kinda disappointing too. Almost like a ripoff, it was a bit agitating. Anywho, I don't want to ruin the ending for you. Thank you so much for the reviews. Please don't die of anticipation! I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you until now. I've been working pretty hard at trying to keep them in character and Ayumu is honestly one of the most difficult kind of characters to write. The reason I added the part about him calling her stupid is because he does that in the manga and it sorta becomes a pet name. Ayumu fully acknowledges that she's not actually stupid, it's almost a kind of show of affection he uses for her. This by no means means that calling people stupid is okay, but it's Ayumu's character, and notice how she's the only one that ever gets that treatment. ; ) Thank you again for the compliments and I'm glad I have the ability to spark some humor. God bless ya and I hope you enjoy this last chapter!

**SicilianMaiden: **Sici-chan, if you are able to read this, I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to your latest chapters of 30 Kisses. I genuinely hope you're doing alright and I'm praying for you.

**Other Special Thanks:**

**A Lonely Night Rain**

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**Once again, everyone, thank you so much for everything and I hope to hear from you soon! God bless you all and have a great Christmas! I'm praying for you!**

_"Stupid girl. What have you gotten us into now?"_

_"Be careful, Narumi. There are those out there that would rather have your noggin on a platter than to help you out. Don't trust anyone unless they mention something called the Savior Project."_

_"There is no way I'm working at another one of these."_

_"Narumi-san, are we going to die?"_

_"Ayumu Narumi, right? You're cuter than I thought you'd be."_

_"How do you really feel about her, Narumi-san?"_

_"Don't you get it? It's a trap! They're trying to tear you apart!"_

_"I honestly don't have to talk like that, do I?"_

_"I won't let you go. If you leave right now, you'll never come back. And I know that you know that. I can see it in your eyes…"_

_"NARUMI-SAN! Wake up! Please! Breathe! Do something! Don't leave me!!"_

_"Forever is forever, Hiyono. There is no going backwards and there are no do-overs. This is it. The question is what are you going to do with that."_

_**Coming Soon: Ye Olde Kissing Booth.**_


End file.
